Beekeepers have until 30 November to complete the annual Colony Loss Survey which helps the industry gather data on a range of topics. In September we caught up with survey author Pike Stahlmann-Brown about what’s new in the 2024 NZ Colony Loss Survey and what he learnt at the EurBee beekeeping research conference in Estonia, which he recently attended.
Apiarist’s Advocate: How long have New Zealand’s beekeepers being filing the Colony Loss Survey?
PSB: The first survey was in 2015, making this year’s survey the 10th overall. That means we can look at trends over a time, from the heady days of the mānuka boom to the present.
AA: One of those trends the survey has shown is the growing impact of varroa, correct?
PSB: That’s right. We first started asking about the cause of losses in 2017. That year, we estimated that 1.6% of all healthy, living colonies going into winter died from varroa. Over winter 2023, it was 6.4%. 2023 was also the first year in which over half of all winter losses were attributed to varroa.
But we’ve also been able to see how people are treating varroa, and one of the things we highlighted over the last few years is that successful beekeepers are using different treatments at different times of the year. This was echoed by several presenters at the Southern North Island Beekeeping Group’s conference in Whanganui in August, where several successful beekeepers shared their varroa treatment programmes.
The 2023 survey also included questions on wellbeing, including questions about factors that shape whether people are thriving or suffering. While varroa was one major theme, economics was another. Costs like fuel and labour have risen rapidly over the last few years while the prices beekeepers get for honey – both mānuka and non-mānuka – have fallen dramatically. A paper we published recently in Bee World showed that New Zealand commercial beekeepers reported lower wellbeing than commercial farmers, foresters, and growers. Beekeepers’ scores were the lowest in primary industry, on average.
AA: Other countries have colony loss surveys, too. Have other countries included beekeeper wellbeing in their surveys?
PSB: Yes. The COLOSS network has about 40 countries in it. Most of them conduct annual colony loss surveys, and over half of them followed New Zealand’s lead by including wellbeing questions. I’m chuffed to say that our questions were developed by some of our leading beekeepers and researchers, including John Berry, Barry Foster, Ricki Leahy, Jane Lorimer, Russel Marsh, Will Trollope and Jane Pierce. Most countries that included wellbeing in their surveys used our exact same wording.
AA: That’s encouraging to see the efforts of that New Zealand cohort capitalised on internationally. Have there been any results about wellbeing in other countries so far?
PSB: Most COLOSS members are in the northern hemisphere, so their winter surveys closed just a few months ago. But I recently attended the EurBee conference in Estonia, and wellbeing was a frequent topic of conversation, and their issues seem to be similar.
At that event, more scientific presentations focused on varroa than anything else, and miticide resistance is a growing problem, especially in places where people only use one form of treatment. Hive density was also identified as a problem in some areas and a researcher from the Czech Republic said that there are more than 100 colonies per km2 in some parts of the country.
Economics were also front and centre. A beekeeper reported that cheap imports had driven the price for bulk local honey in Germany to 80 Euro cents (about $1.43) per KG. I spoke with a couple of beekeepers from Central Europe who are each storing several hundred tonnes of honey at the moment. Wages are high, fuel costs are high…
On the other hand, one presenter surveyed consumers and found that nearly one-quarter of them ate honey every day, so I guess there’s hope!
AA: You would have been in your element at such an event. I understand it went for four days, so what else did you pick up which might be most pertinent to the New Zealand beekeeping industry?
PSB: There was a lot of interesting research! One of the most interesting was about tropilaelaps mites. The average reproduction of varroa in a worker cell is 1.6 mites. In a drone cell, it is 2.6 mites. For tropilaelaps, those numbers are 3 mites and 6 mites, respectively. God forbid that tropilaelaps should ever reach New Zealand!
AA: On that note, you ask about tropilaelaps in the current NZ Colony Loss Survey. Why is that?
PSB: To be clear, tropilaelaps is not present in New Zealand. But it’s important to know if we as a country are prepared for invasions of more honey-bee pests and pathogens, some of which could be even worse than varroa. The survey asks beekeepers how confident they are in being able to detect signs of these pests and diseases. It also asks how confident they are that our biosecurity systems could eradicate them if an incursion were ever to occur.
AA: What else is new in the survey this year?
PSB: It turns out that there are hundreds of people who have apiary registrations, but who don’t keep any bees. The new survey asks such people whether they’re new to beekeeping, on their way out, or just taking a break.
There’s also a new question (for everyone) about beekeeping-related activities. Do you attend beekeeper meetings? Do you help collect swarms? That sort of thing.
One more change for this year: I heard from people in pollination that it’s hard to get to the survey before the end of kiwifruit pollination, so the survey is open longer this year – until 30 November.
AA: The sooner they get onto it the better though, so can you remind our readers how to take part in the survey?
PSB: All registered beekeepers should have received emails about the survey on 1 September and 21 September. Those emails have a link that is unique to each beekeeper. The next reminder will be sent on 11 October.
AA: Thanks for catching up with us today, Pike. We look forward to seeing all the results.
PSB: Thank you! I’m always happy to talk about the survey and especially like sharing the results. Watch this space…
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