Hundreds of flatbed loads of honey bees are trucked into Washington every spring, enabling the production of apples, cherries, pears and berries in the state.

This article was first published by Cascadia Daily News.

The pollinators are estimated to add at least $18 billion in value to crops throughout the U.S., yet the past year has been catastrophic.

“We are in the middle of a colony collapse disorder like we haven’t seen since the early 1990s,” said local beekeeper Dawn Beck, who has a master beekeeper certificate from the University of Montana and one from Cornell University.

About 1.7 million honey bee colonies — nearly 60% of all such hives in the country — were lost between June 2024 and March 2025, according to survey data from the nonprofit “Project Apis m.” (Apis mellifera is the scientific name for honey bee.) With about 50,000 bees per colony in peak season, that is close to 80 billion bees.

Imagine opening the lid of a bee box and finding it full of dead bees this spring, Beck said. Imagine doing that more than 1.5 million times.

“Absolutely devastating,” she added.

Researchers estimate the deaths, likely caused by viruses, have resulted in more than $600 million in lost pollination income and honey production, as well as the costs to replace the colonies.

Commercial operators were hit hardest ahead of the start of their annual migration through the fields of the country. One of these seasonal journeys made international news on May 30, when a commercial operator temporarily lost its load of millions of bees that were leaving a Whatcom County blueberry field, destined for South Dakota.

Roughly 62% of commercial colonies collapsed. Usually, commercial beekeepers’ experience, resources and management practices increase the survival rate of their colonies. However, other types of beekeepers had better survival rates, losing a little more than half of their colonies.

“We were surprised by the sheer number of colonies that commercial beekeepers lost,” said Priyadarshini Basu, a bee researcher and assistant professor of Pollinator Health and Apiculture with Washington State University’s bee program.

Without immediate intervention, the newest wave of colony collapse could drive up the costs for farmers, disrupt food production and shutter many commercial beekeeping operations, experts warned in April.

What caused losses?

As reports of large-scale honey bee losses started rolling into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bee Labs in January, researchers scrambled to assess the scale and severity of the losses, as well as identify the potential cause.

The effort pulled in members of Project Apis m., the American Beekeeping Federation and the American Honey Producers Association.

A preprint scientific paper out of Bee Labs points toward disease-carrying, parasitic mites’ resistance to a widely used miticide — a chemical used to kill mites. The finding underscores “the urgent need for new control strategies for this parasite,” the researchers wrote.

A screening of samples for known pathogens and parasites identified three viruses, including acute bee paralysis, in “unusually high levels.” The viruses are tightly connected to Varroa mites.

These microscopic mites feed not only on the fatty body tissue of the honey bees but also on their brood, where baby bees develop.

Because the mites also spread viral diseases, “it’s like a double whammy,” Basu said.

“While viruses are a likely end-stage cause of colony death, other stressors such as nutritional stress and agrochemicals may have also played significant roles,” the researchers wrote.

Basu, who is among the scientists tackling the issue, agreed, saying the issue causing the collapse was most likely a combination of stressors.

Nutrition is fundamental to the health of a colony, Basu explained, pointing out that quality food supports a stronger immune system for combating stressors.

“We need to have better solutions in tackling poor nutrition,” she said.

Millions of bees need to be trucked into Washington because there isn’t enough nectar and pollen — known as forage — to sustain them within the state.

“The lack of forage is the reason behind all this trucking beehives across the country,” said Tim Hyatt, a second-generation beekeeper in central Washington and the legislative chair for the Washington State Beekeeper Association.

Hyatt said his family moved their operation to the Dakotas in the 1970s to avoid the harsh pesticides used at the time. Forage is also more abundant in the region.

After his bees pollinate fruit trees in eastern Washington, Hyatt goes straight into honey production, avoiding berry pollination contracts in Whatcom and Skagit counties.

Pollinating blueberries doesn’t fit into Hyatt’s schedule, but the crop also has a reputation for being tough on bees, he explained. In addition to the pollen not being very nutritious, working the crop can also lead to a bacterial disease that affects honey bee larvae known as European foulbrood disease.

While some reports show honey bee health declines following blueberry pollination, the topic is still an area of scientific exploration, explained Lisa Wasko DeVetter, an associate professor in small fruit horticulture at WSU.

“There’s a lot of great researchers trying to answer that question,” DeVetter said.

Necessary to feed America

An estimated one in every three mouthfuls of food in the U.S. benefits from honey bee pollination, according to USDA. These bees — not native to North America — were brought from Europe in the 1500s and 1600s, along with many of the crops they evolved with.

While Washington state has more than 600 species of bees, only honey bees are relied on to pollinate crops.

The bees work in other states, too. Nearly every commercial bee operator’s season starts in almond orchards in California at the end of January. The first “mega pollination” event of the country brings more than a million colonies into the state to service roughly 1.63 million acres of almond trees.

In general, commercial operators generate revenue in three ways: queen bee breeding, honey production and pollination services. Hyatt said his company’s revenue is — on average — split evenly between revenue from pollinating services and revenue from honey production.

Commercial bees working the West Coast move north from the almonds, first being put to work in fruit tree orchards, and then berries and other crops.

Of the top 10 agricultural commodities in Washington, apples, cherries and pears are 100% dependent on honey bee pollination. Whatcom County’s famous raspberry and blueberry fields also depend on these bees.

Whatcom County has an estimated 15,000 acres of berry crops, which produce more than 99% of Washington’s raspberries.

Without pollinating services, farmers might get half a ton of raspberries per acre instead of 6 or 7 tons, estimated Red Raspberry Commission Executive Director Henry Bierlink.

“When you invest as much as you do in that area, you need good production,” Bierlink said.

Not only do the bees significantly enhance fruit production, but quality pollination also produces bigger fruit, up to a point, DeVetter explained.

DeVetter observed strong colonies arriving in Whatcom and Skagit berry fields to pollinate crops this year, despite the colony collapse.

“I had no concerns about the quality or strength of these hives as they were going into raspberry,” DeVetter said, pointing out that the colonies had grown strong after working the almond and tree fruit crops before getting to berries.

But the potential impact of the colony loss at a national level is profound, confirmed Basu.

“Losing colonies is not only impacting the economics of beekeeping but also the agricultural industry because we are reliant on honey bees for commercial pollination and honey production,” Basu said.

“Beekeepers need solutions,” she added.

Source - https://www.newsfromthestates.com