China’s honey bee losses are low compared with West
December 28, 2016
Editor’s Note: See,”Survey results of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses in China (2010–2013)” by Zhiguang Liu, Chao Chen, Qingsheng Niu, Wenzhong Qi, Chunying Yuan, Songkun Su, Shidong Liu, Yingsheng Zhang, Xuewen Zhang, Ting Ji, Rongguo Dai, Zhongyin Zhang, Shunhai Wang, Fuchao Gao, Haikun Guo, Liping Lv, Guiling Ding & Wei Shi is available here. [Paywall]
From: Science Daily
Source: Taylor & Francis
Summary: Since concern about widespread honey bee colony losses began ten years ago, there have been surveys carried out to assess winter losses in North America and many European countries. So far, the picture in China, the largest beekeeping country in the world, has been unclear. Now for the first time, information about winter losses from a large-scale survey carried out from 2010-13 has been published.
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The authors speculate that reasons for the lower losses compared to those of other countries may be due to a high genetic diversity in their honey bees, regular replacement of queen bees by the beekeepers, and because the average size of beekeeping operation is small, meaning that beekeepers can pay close attention to their hives, in particular to the way they control the parasitic varroa mite. The authors also discuss why losses may be consistently higher in certain regions.
IBRA Science Director Norman Carreck says: “For the first time we now have a good picture of honey bee colony losses in China, the world’s biggest beekeeping country. Further studies of why losses there appear to be relatively low may assist our understanding of widespread colony losses elsewhere.”
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