Dutch winter bee mortality rate above 20%, finds annual survey

In the winter of 2023–2024, 21.2% of the Dutch population of honeybee colonies died. While this mortality rate is lower than that of the previous winter, it still represents a worryingly high number of bee colonies that did not survive this winter period.The annual winter mortality rate is determined through a beekeeper survey conducted every year by researchers from Wageningen University & Research, in collaboration with de Nederlandse Bijenhoudersvereniging (NBV), Imkers Nederland (IN), the biodynamic beekeepers (BD-imkers) and professional beekeepers (BVNI), commissioned by the Ministry of LNV.This year, it is especially the south and north of the Netherlands that experienced relatively high winter mortality among honeybee colonies. Notably, in the previous year, the highest winter mortality was primarily observed in the east, center and western regions. However, such regional variations are common as good and bad years alternate in beekeeping practice.A total of 2,640 Dutch ...