DES MOINES – The buzz in the bee community isn’t good following the harsh winter conditions experienced throughout much of the Midwest.

Iowa bee experts estimate an upward of 65 to 70 percent of the state’s honey bee population didn’t survive the past cold season.

‘This is probably the worst year we’ve seen for the bee population,” said Bob Wolff, a volunteer beekeeper at the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids.

He had 12 hives before winter. Two survived.

Iowa Department of Agriculture bee researcher Andrew Joseph characterized the situation as a ‘death by a thousand paper cuts” as the honey bee population has faced an environment lacking in diversity, pesticide problems, colony collapse and parasites such as varroa mites, since the 1990s.

These conditions lead to stressed, sick and weakened bees that can’t weather the winter.

‘It’s not that bees can’t handle a cold winter or snow … (but) when you go into winter with those types of bees and then you’re confronted with the harshness of this season, they don’t make it through to spring time,” Joseph said.

Honey bees normally cluster tightly around the queen bee and feed off the honey stores in the hive throughout the winter. However, the long winter […]