A new survey says America's honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies. But using costly measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat. Thursday’s University of Maryland and Auburn University survey says that even though 48% of colonies were lost in the year that ended April 1, the number of United States honeybee colonies remained relatively stable. Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 of the crops we eat, including nuts, vegetables and fruits. Scientists blame parasites, pesticides, starvation and climate change for large die-offs.
This wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone seeing the conditions pollinator honey bees are kept in. Most are distrubuted in cardboard boxes to fields to be used for pollination. Once they pollinate the fields they aren’t really of concern to the farmers anymore. In my opinion, this is like saying half of cattle die every year, but populations remain stable. It’s kind of by design, and in some cases the goal.
That’s a temporary nuc box for live bee sales. Noone takes these to pollinate crops. Once they are done pollination, the grower might not care anymore, but the beekeeper certainly does. They either move on to another crop or return home to produce honey.
Every field I’ve been in has these boxes distributed for pollinating. From the product page:
So it’s sold as a bonus that this does not need to be returned, so it’s common enough practice. I know they are suppose to be used to seed new boxes, but farmers generally don’t care. They want the flowers pollinated, the bees will probably die from the pesticides so no use in worrying about them.
Edit: There is an article from the guardian on the harmful conditions bees endure on almond farms. I am near smaller farms, so maybe this practice (of using nucs to pollinate) is not as wide spread as I thought. Regardless, bees are routinely mistreated in various agricultural settings.
They might look similar, but they are not. Hives are graded and a 4 or 5 framer nuc wouldn’t make the cut. Growers don’t buy bees for pollination, they rent them. And yes, they are sometimes damaged by careless pesticide application.
Ahh interesting. Thanks for the insight.