Honey bee life spans have shortened by 50% over the past 50 years
New research at the University of Maryland shows that honey bee lifespans have dropped significantly in recent years.
Scientists have modeled the effect of shorter life spans in bees and concluded that increased colony loss and decreased honey production in the United States over the last several decades.
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Colonies naturally age and die off as they are turned over, so colony turnover is an accepted factor in the beekeeping business.
U.S. beekeepers have reported high losses from bee colonies over the past decade and they've had to replace more colonies to keep operations viable.
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This is the first study to show an overall decline in honeybee lifespan, potentially independent of environmental stressors.
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By isolating bee colonies from their hive life just before they emerge as adults, researchers are finding that whatever is killing the bees is likely happening much earlier
A solution to this hypothesis is to test whether it’s true or not.
Nearman was studying how to rear adults and He found out that it was the old bees being replaced with younger bees because of an overpopulation problem.
The researchers replicated an earlier study by collecting the bee pupae at various stages of development and
The collected bees have finished growing and have been kept as adults in special cages.
These historical records of lab-kept bees suggest similar lifespans and isolated factors that reduce the lifespan in one environment will also reduce it in another
The researchers found that these traits were correlated with colony turnover rates in a species of a social insect.
The team modeled the effect of a 50% reduction in lifespan on a beekeeping operation, where colonies that are lost are replaced every year
colony loss rate was around 33%. This is very similar to the average and annual loss rates of 30%- 40% reported by beekeepers over the last 14 years.
In other countries, these can be isolated and compared, such as genetics, pesticide use, and virus presence in local bee stocks.