While Treasure Valley beekeepers have reported an increase in swarms this spring, the same cannot be said for several states across the U.S. In fact, Minnesota and Nebraska are reporting huge losses of honeybees.
Here in Idaho, beekeepers said they have been quite busy, rounding up as many as 100 swarms this spring. The increased numbers are due primarily to the mild winter.
But a recent study from Purdue University said, "populations of honeybees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides - widely used and highly toxic to honeybees - have been found in previous analysis of honeybee pollen and combs."
The Huffington Post reports that the massive honeybee deaths in the nation's Midwest may be caused by a big marketing ploy.
Within the last 15 years, U.S. corn cultivation has drastically changed. It has gone from a crop requiring almost no insecticides and negligible amounts of fungicides, said the Huffington Post, to a crop where "the average acre is grown from seeds treated or genetically engineered to express three different insecticides (as well as a fungicide or two) before being sprayed prophylactically with RoundUp (an herbicide) and a new class of fungicides that farmers didn't know they 'needed' before the mid-2000s."