A sour taste for beekeepers rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New Zealand beekeepers once again reported that the Varroa destructor mite is the most common reason for overwintering hive losses, according to the recently released New Zealand Colony Loss Survey. The overall colony loss rate during winter 2022 was .
Apiculture NZ | Scoop InfoPages scoop.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scoop.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The most commonly reported reasons for a colony death was problems with queen bees.
Photo: 123RF
The Ministry for Primary Industries has commissioned Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research to conduct a colony loss survey annually since 2015, to help it monitor losses over time and understand what is driving them.
About 30 percent of New Zealand s registered beekeepers completed the 2020 Colony Loss Survey. A report released this week on the results showed the overall loss rate for winter 2020 was 11.3 percent - approximately 99,150 colonies - an 8.5 percent increase on 2019.
The most commonly reported reasons for a colony death was problems with queen bees (33.1 percent), suspected varroa mite and related complications (31 percent), followed by suspected starvation (7.6 percent) and wasps (6.6 percent).