Despite the recent endangered listing of a Hawaii-specific bee species, the Washington Post says bees are doing just fine. In a report this week, a Washington Post blog says the endangered species only accounts for a handful of relatively obscure species that live in Hawaii. Wild bees are plentiful, according to data from the Department of Agriculture. Further, USDA data shows that in 2015, there were 2.66 million commercial honey-producing bee colonies in the United States. That is down slightly from the 2.74 million colonies in 2014, which represented a two-decade high. The number of commercial bee colonies is still significantly higher than it was in 2006 when colony collapse disorder was first documented. Some research has linked neonicotinoid insecticides to wild bee population declines, but wild bee populations are hard to survey, making an assessment of that claim difficult. The Washington Post blog adds the listing of the Hawaii species is likely an indicator that the other 3,993 bee species are doing fine.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.