Honeybee starvation

Backyard beekeepers produce 40% of all honey worldwide. Beehive management issues resulting in colony losses are a major concern for backyard beekeepers. According to a 2014-15 national survey, backyard beekeepers lost 52% and commercial beekeepers lost 32% of colonies. Backyard beekeepers face more colony losses in the winter than in the summer but for commercial beekeepers there is not much variation in loss by season. Roughly 22% of backyard beekeepers have identified starvation as one of the main causes for colony losses.Honey bee starvation is an especially challenging problem for beginning beekeepers. Starvation may be caused by unfavorable weather, disease, long distance transportation or depleting food reserve. Starvation may be avoided by effective monitoring of hives and disease prevention measures.

Over harvesting of honey is the foremost cause for scarcity. Bees are not left with enough of a honey store. Weather changes and extremes, available food reserve and presence of brood are factors that influence the speed at which food store depletes. It could just take a day or two of food scarcity to kill an entire hive.

In the Winter, honeybees cluster around the queen and brood to keep them warm. It is believed that an outer layer of bees called mantle bees keep the cluster packed and warm. Also an inner layer of worker bees move around and shiver to produce warmth Even if food is available in a far corner of the hive or in another frame, it may be too cold for the bees to leave the cluster to reach the food. This leads to starvation and death.

Early Spring can be misleading in terms of knowing honey level in hive. A couple of cold nights in Spring can prevent the bees from foraging and beekeepers may not realise if the bees have been able to store enough to get through those days. Throughout Spring, colonies are likely to become densely populated.

In Summer, huge amount of honey is necessary for the big population of bees. Rainy days can wash out nectar and pollen from flowers and hungry bees may run out of food.

In the Fall, sudden drops in temperature are the major reasons for starvation.

Diseases like Nosema ceranae impact the digestive tract of the bees . This could lead to starvation even in the presence of food sources.

Millions of bees are transported each year to California and other parts of the country to pollinate crops such as almonds. Bee hives are driven cross country in a truck nonstop or with little break. Bees are severely stressed from confinement, heat, weather changes and sudden change in their daily tasks. While on the road for two to three days, it is difficult for the truck driver or the beekeeper to check on the temperature and food level in the hives. Proper nutrition of the bees is affected and there is high risk of bees starving to death on the road trip. One study points to impaired food gland development in migratory bees resulting in improper feeding of brood. North Carolina State University news states that providing bees access to huge amount of food while on road may ease stress due to transportation

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Wikipedia