In this short note we present comparable loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2015/16 from 29 countries, obtained with the COLOSS questionnaire. Altogether, we received valid answers from 19,952 beekeepers. These beekeepers collectively wintered 421,238 colonies, and reported 18,587 colonies with unsolvable queen problems and 32,048 dead colonies after winter. This gives an overall loss rate of 12.0% (95% confidence interval 11.8%-12.2%) during winter 2015/16, with marked differences among countries. Beekeepers in the present study assessed 7.6% (95% CI 7.4%-7.8%) of their colonies as dead or empty, and 4.4% (95% CI 4.3%-4.5%) as having unsolvable queen problems after winter. The overall analysis showed that small operations suffered higher losses than larger ones. A table with detailed results and a map showing response and relative risks at regional level are presented
Submit your article to this journal Received 23 December 2013, accepted subject to revision 14 January 2014, accepted for publication 28 January 2014. * Corresponding author: E-mail: romee.van.der.zee@beemonitoring.org †performed the analysis and provided the manuscript
SummaryThis article presents results of an analysis of winter losses of honey bee colonies from 19 mainly European countries, most of which implemented the standardised 2013 COLOSS questionnaire. Generalised linear mixed effects models (GLMMs) were used to investigate the effects of several factors on the risk of colony loss, including different treatments for Varroa destructor, allowing for random effects of beekeeper and region.Both winter and summer treatments were considered, and the most common combinations of treatment and timing were used to define treatment factor levels. Overall and within country colony loss rates are presented. Significant factors in the model were found to be:percentage of young queens in the colonies before winter, extent of queen problems in summer, treatment of the varroa mite, and access by foraging honey bees to oilseed rape and maize. Spatial variation at the beekeeper level is shown across geographical regions using random effects from the fitted models, both before and after allowing for the effect of the significant terms in the model. This spatial variation is considerable.
In the fight against the Varroa destructor mite, selective breeding of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) populations that are resistant to the parasitic mite stands as a sustainable solution. Selection initiatives indicate that using the suppressed mite reproduction (SMR) trait as a selection criterion is a suitable tool to breed such resistant bee populations. We conducted a large European experiment to evaluate the SMR trait in different populations of honey bees spread over 13 different countries, and representing different honey bee genotypes with their local mite parasites. The first goal was to standardize and validate the SMR evaluation method, and then to compare the SMR trait between the different populations. Simulation results indicate that it is necessary to examine at least 35 single-infested cells to reliably estimate the SMR score of any given colony. Several colonies from our dataset display high SMR scores indicating that this trait is present within the European honey bee populations. The trait is highly variable between colonies and some countries, but no major differences could be identified between countries for a given genotype, or between genotypes in different countries. This study shows the potential to increase selective breeding efforts of V. destructor resistant populations.
Introduction. Rape and buckwheat are progressively cultured in Lithuania. Pollen of these plants can be present in honeybee products, whereas it is known that pollen can be a potential allergen.Purpose. To explore how often and intensively the pollen of rape, buckwheat and mugwort, as well as monofloral (buckwheat and rape) and polyfloral (spring) honey can cause allergy in humans, to reveal whether there is a difference between honey allergy before and after heat treatment and to investigate the purity of monofloral honey in Lithuania.Materials and methods. The influence of allergens was determined by a skin-prick test. The botanical origin of honey and pollen was determined by the melissopalynological method.Results. Botanical composition studies have shown that in Lithuania where melliferous plants are cultivated, honey made by honeybees is almost homogeneous. The skinprick test revealed no statistically significant difference between honey tested before and after heat-treatment, but proved that monofloral honey was less allergenic than polyfloral. Pollen caused allergy more often and more intensively than monofloral honey did.
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