Minnesota Ag Connection - Minnesota Honey Bee Colonies Total 21,000

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Minnesota Honey Bee Colonies Total 21,000
Minnesota Ag Connection - 08/05/2020

Honey bee colonies for operations with 5 or more colonies in Minnesota as of January 1, 2020, totaled 21,000 colonies. This is 24% above the 17,000 colonies on January 1 last year and 78% below the 97,000 colonies during the October-December 2019 quarter. Producers boosted their January 1 inventory by moving colonies into Minnesota and adding colonies to a maximum of 57,000 during the January-March 2020 quarter. Since January 2019 the July-September 2019 quarter had the largest maximum number of colonies, with 129,000, while January-March 2019 had the smallest maximum number of colonies with 43,000.

Honey bee colonies lost for operations with 5 or more colonies for the January-March 2020 quarter was 1,000 colonies or 2%. This was 3 percentage points below the same period last year and 14 percentage points below losses reported during the October-December 2019 quarter. Since January 2019 the largest percentage of the colonies lost, at 16%, occurred in both July-September 2019 and October-December 2019 quarters with 21,000 and 15,500 colonies lost, respectively. The January-March 2020 quarter had the fewest number of colonies lost, at 1,000 colonies.

Varroa mites were the number one stressor for operations with five or more colonies during two of the three surveyed quarters in 2019. However, other causes were the leading stressor for the January-March 2020 quarter at 4.3%, while Varroa Mites were 3.5%.

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