Beekeeper: The number of bees in small apiaries is increasingly decreasing

"2025 was multifaceted for beekeepers. In some apiaries, there was high winter mortality, while in others, it was not as high, but it is impressive that, according to "Agrostatistics" at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the number of bee families has grown to 1.6 million units. Just a year or two ago, there were 823,000 units. It is impossible to double in size, provided that it is said that in many apiaries there is high mortality, averaging 50%," commented Eng. Mikhail Mikhov, beekeeper, Chairman of the Board of the Associations "Union of Bulgarian Beekeepers" and "United Bulgarian Beekeepers' Union" to Agri.BG. According to him, in some places, especially in small apiaries, the winter mortality this year reached up to 70-80%. "There is some contradiction between the data that beekeepers provide and the statistical data, the methodology by which they are calculated. In my opinion, there is some mistake because there is no way to have so many bee families with the data from ...