Massive Die Off Of Honeybees From Harsh Winter In Iowa, America

This year’s extreme cold winter wasn’t just tough on us, it caused a drastic decrease in the number of honey bees in our state.

“It’s devastating,” said Mike Swett, of Squaw Creek Honey. “When I came out and saw my loss, I mean you literally just cry.”

Swett said the majority of his 25 honeybee hives are now full of dead bees.

“I have dead bees, and I still have combed honey here and the bees are just basically starved to death,” said Swett.

Some of Squaw Creek Honey is produced near Swett’s Ames house. Out of a total of six hives there, only one is thriving.

“Last year I probably lost 8 to 10 percent of my bees.  This year, I’m seeing 60 percent loss,” said Swett.

Swett said this year’s brutal winter is what killed them.

“It was so cold that the bees were unable to move in their cluster, their ball to the next little bit of food,” said Swett.

Swett estimates the deaths to cost him $600 to $1,000.

“If we have an extreme sort of condition experience like we had this year, this past year, it’s really going to knock out those weaker, sicker or malnourished colonies,” said Iowa Department of Agriculture’s bee researcher Andrew Joseph.

“We think the losses might be as high as 70 percent or so,” said Joseph.

The national average at around 30 percent.

Bees do much more than produce our honey.

“Pollination is the real value of honey bees,” said Joseph. “We all like to eat a diversity of foods in our diets. We depend on honey bees. If we want to see those flowers out there in the environment, we need pollinators,” said Joseph.

Joseph said bees weakened by parasites and pesticides are likely the ones who couldn’t make it through the winter.

Experts said the lower number of bees could eventually lead to higher food prices.

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