Honey bee colony losses stabilize following record highs, yet pressures persist

The U.S. Beekeeping Survey released its annual colony loss estimates for honey bee colonies

Today, the U.S. Beekeeping Survey released its annual colony loss estimates for American honey bee colonies from April 2025 to April 2026. Led by Auburn University, in collaboration with Oregon State University and the Apiary Inspectors of America, the national survey revealed losses of 39.9% during the survey period.

American beekeepers saw record losses the previous two years — 55.1% in 2023–24 and 55.6% in 2024–25 — so this year marks a return to levels they have been accustomed to for more than a decade. Despite this improvement, beekeepers in the country still grapple with high losses.

"While it's encouraging to see colony loss rates come down from last year's historic highs, losing nearly 40% of managed colonies in a single year is not a victory—it's a crisis in slow motion," said Steven Coy, President of the American Honey Producers Association.

More than 2,300 beekeepers managing 219,000 colonies from across the country completed the survey. This represents 13.2% of the USDA’s estimated 2.4 million managed honey-producing colonies in the country in 2025. The U.S. had about 2.6 million colonies prior to the two record loss years.

"Our industry and the crops that depend on it cannot sustain these levels of losses year after year. We need real action now before our industry reaches a point of no return. We must continue to invest in research, support, and solutions that get these numbers down closer to the truly acceptable level of 15-20%," added Coy.

Beekeepers lost more colonies during winter than summer. However, at 30.3% the percentage of colonies lost during winter were still 10 percentage points higher than what beekeepers consider acceptable to their operations.

Geoff Williams, director of the Bee Center at Auburn University and lead of the U.S. Beekeeping Survey, said this year’s results offer important insight into long‑term trends.

"Beekeepers and their colonies are continually looking to overcome pressure caused by parasites and poor forage. In recent years, this has meant more and more investment in time, tools and, of course, money as they try to stay afloat,” Williams said, “It’s been a very challenging time for beekeepers, and this continues despite the welcome news of lower losses compared to the last 2 years.”

Although losses were elevated across all beekeeping operation types, backyard beekeepers managing fewer than 50 colonies lost more than commercial beekeepers managing over 500 colonies. This highlights that no colony is immune to issues facing honey bees.

"The importance of this survey is significant to our industry and requires input from all levels of beekeepers,” said Debbie Seib, President of the American Beekeeping Federation.

"The results produced from the U.S. Beekeeping Survey are critical in helping us understand the current status of our beekeeping industry.  They provide insightful information and overtime help to show trends in our industry,” Seib said.

Contributors of the 2025-2026 survey include the One Hive Foundation, Project Apis m, the National Honey Board, the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, the American Beekeeping Federation, and the American Honey Producers Association.

For more information on the latest survey results, please visit: https://apiaryinspectors.org/US-beekeeping-survey-25-26.

An interactive dashboard that allows users to visualize select results from previous survey years (2023-2024 and 2024-2025) can be accessed at: https://aub.ie/us-beekeeping-survey-app.