European bees at healthy levels
August 13, 2014
From: Lawn & Lanscape
Overwintering losses of colonies has also sunk to record low for 2013/2014 winter.
European bees are much healthier than many recent publications appear to suggest. New field data from nearly 400,000 bee colonies from 21 countries in Europe and the Mediterranean show that overwintering losses of honey bee colonies – a leading indicator of general bee health – are at their lowest level in years.
“It is great to see that our bees came out of the 2013/2014 winter in the best shape seen over the past several years,” said Dr. Christian Maus, global pollinator safety manager at Bayer CropScience. “These results are also very telling since the data relate to a season during which neonicotinoid-based crop protection products were in common use throughout Europe. This offers further evidence that these important components in a farmer’s toolbox do not impact bee health under real-life field conditions,” Maus adds.European bees are at their best health level in years as overwintering losses of colonies sink to record lo
The non-profit honey bee research association COLOSS (prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes), which comprises more than 360 scientific professionals from 60 countries, has published new data showing that the overall mortality rate of bees in the 2013/2014 winter was nine percent – losses below 10 percent are considered to be normal. This compares with losses between 30 and 34 percent in the UK and Belgium during the 2012/2013 winter season.
Mite infestations impact overwintering
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