Honey bee colonies for operations with 5 or more colonies in Iowa as of January 1, 2019, totaled 7,500 colonies. This is 82 percent below the 41,000 colonies on January 1 last year, and 64 percent below the 21,000 colonies during the October-December 2018 quarter. Producers boosted their
January 1 inventory by moving colonies into Iowa and adding colonies to a maximum of 11,500 during the January-March 2019 quarter. Since January 2018 the July-September 2018 quarter had the largest maximum number of colonies, with 57,000, while January-March 2019 quarter had the smallest maximum number of colonies with 11,500.
Honey bee colonies lost for operations with 5 or more colonies for the January-March 2019 quarter was 1,600 or 14 percent. This was 9 percentage points above the same period last year but 6 percentage points below losses reported during the October-December 2018 quarter. Since January 2018 the largest percentage of the colonies lost, at 20 percent, or 4,200 colonies, occurred in the October-December 2018 quarter. The January-March 2019 quarter had the fewest number of colonies lost, at 1,600 colonies.
Varroa mites were the number one stressor for operations with 5 or more colonies since January 2018. The January-March 2019 quarter showed varroa mites affected 34.8 percent of Iowa’s honey bee colonies, which is the second highest level since January 2018. Other Pests and Parasites, Diseases, Pesticides, and Other Causes categories all saw sharp declines in percent stressed in the January-March 2019 quarter from the OctoberDecember 2018 quarter.
