Four-Year Overview of Winter Colony Losses in Greece: Citizen Science Evidence That Transitioning to Organic Beekeeping Practices Reduces Colony Losses

Abstract

The honey bee is one of the most important pollinators with a close relationship to humans. The questionnaire from the non-governmental association “COLOSS”, answered by beekeepers around the world, is a valuable tool for monitoring and analyzing factors involved in overwintering losses, as well as for understanding the evolution of the beekeeping sector over the years. Between 2018–2021, Greece’s participation in this survey involved collecting data from 752 beekeepers and 81,903 hives, from almost the whole country, with a stable balance between professional/non-professional participants and hives, providing a solid representation of the beekeeping practices and winter losses during this period. The results of this study identify a transition towards more natural beekeeping practices concomitant with a significant decrease in winter losses (average losses in 2018: 22.3% and 2019: 24%, dropped in 2020: 14.4% and 2021: 15.3%). Indeed, some factors, such as the increased use of natural landscapes for honey production (from 66.7% usage in 2018 to 76.3% in 2021) and the reduction in the exclusive use of synthetic acaricides (from 24.7% usage in 2018 to 6.7% in 2021) seem to have a significant impact on hive survival. Although these correlations remain to be confirmed experimentally, our study shows that Greek beekeepers follow recommendations and policies toward more sustainable practices. In the future, these trends could be further analyzed and integrated into training programs to strengthen the cooperation and information exchange between citizens and science.

Using Analytic Hierarchy Process to Assess Beekeeping Suitability in Portuguese Controlled Areas: A First Approach

“…Therefore, a suitability assessment can be extremely helpful in planning land uses, merging a wide range of unrelated information to produce datasets where areas are ranked by their suitability for a certain activity, according to specific requirements [14,19]. In addition, determining suitable locations for beekeeping should be evaluated in the field of land use planning considering economic, ecological, environmental, and social aspects within a spatiotemporal perspective [26,32,35].…”

“…Nevertheless, despite the innumerable advantages associated with beekeeping activity, its subsistence is being seriously threatened due to anthropic and biotic stresses. Climate change, the fragmentation of habitats resulting from land use changes, the occurrence of diseases and insect pests, bee health, and side effects of the use of pesticides are some negative aspects that can contribute to significant losses in pollinating insect colonies worldwide, thus compromising the beekeeping and agricultural production, which are the main income sources for many farmers who live and work in rural areas [2,3,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. To halt and reverse this trend, in 2018, the European Commission adopted the first-ever European Union (EU) framework on wild pollinators, called the EU Pollinators Initiative.…”

Emerging threats and opportunities to managed bee species in European agricultural systems: a horizon scan

“…Beekeeper experience is a key factor in determining responses to honey bee health issues 74 , and an increase in the number of inexperienced beekeepers has been identified as an emerging threat to bee health. Several studies at a pan-European level have found that beekeeper background and apicultural practices are major drivers of honey bee colony losses 75 , 76 . Inexperienced beekeepers with small apiaries experience up to double the winter mortality rate compared to experienced beekeepers, possibly due to inadequate disease control 77 .…”

“What’s Good for the Bees Will Be Good for Us!”—A Qualitative Study of the Factors Influencing Beekeeping Activity

“…In the beekeeping practices of beekeepers in Greece, an ecological approach is becoming increasingly prevalent, i.e., the gradual replacement of synthetic miticides with natural methods and materials, the annual replacement of queen bees, and the choice of a natural food source-rich apiary [103]. More broadly, engaging with the beekeepers' knowledge and environmental values, including their critiques of pollinator and agricultural policy and contemporary food systems, can support the transformations necessary to ensure a sustainable food system that provides food while supporting more comprehensive environmental benefits [104].…”