Fewer bees this spring?

Here in western Massachusetts it seems like I am seeing far fewer bees on our property, even though we have more flowering plants this year than ever.  There appears to be zero fruit set on our sour cherry tree, whereas it did ok last year.

What have you been seeing?

Zero honey bees. I have seen many others.

I have trap hives out in four areas around my town for about a month. Zero bees have moved in but I see bees around town. I think it is the weather that may be the issue but will have to see if this May is warmer than April.

I had a bad winter in my own hives - worst yet, following on from a bummer year. A combination of long cool winter, late spring and a cold spell just as they were brooding up. I have lost 80% of my colonies.

That said, those that made it through are now building up strongly.

Varroa sucks.

I've just started hearing of the first few swarms in my area though, so it should be picking up.

Probably EMF’s from WiFi.. but at least your internet is faster. Who needs bees and other pesky insects, when we can have robots and AI, right?

I autopsy each of my lost hives. This year was one queen failure and the rest were directly due to high varroa mite load through the autumn and winter. The cold wet spring finished them off.

Michael Cox wrote:I autopsy each of my lost hives. This year was one queen failure and the rest were directly due to high varroa mite load through the autumn and winter. The cold wet spring finished them off.

I am sorry to hear of your losses.  Where are you located?

The spring weather here was wild - a two day spike to 90, then cold and wet.

In the UK

Warm when it should have been cold and cold when it should have been warm seems to have reduced the viability of many of my mason bee nests.   Miner bees seem to be doing well and I have early development of leaf cutter bees in the green house due to higher temperatures.  Bumble bees also seem to be slow to show up. I have not had honey bee hives the last 2 decades.

I thought it was just here.  I've been very concerned.  I've got a row of catmint in front of my house and it is one of the first things to bloom.  Each year, it is covered constantly with an assortment of bees and butterflies.  This is the first year I have gone days without seeing even one.  They were out very early when my apple trees and blueberries bloomed but then they all disappeared.  I have seen one lonely bumblebee on my mint in the last month and none on my blackberries.  I have never seen a year like this.  We live near commercial farming fields so I just assumed they sprayed something and it drifted to our land but not sure now.  I go for a 3 mile walk each morning on a country road lined with wild blackberries and they are loaded with flowers but I still have not seen any bees on the flowers.  My blackberries are getting pollinated but I have no idea how unless it is the wind or night moths.  I feel like we woke up to the silent spring?    

my wild hive has been much later in starting up this year march/april compared to the same time last year , the year previous  it had already put out a swarm by this time , plus last year it must have felt something was going to different for the upcoming year as the hive  kicked out about 2000 male drone bees very early in the year , and very aggressively refused them entry back in. Like they knew it would be a late start this season and the honey stocks would be low.

ArticleClimate change is bad for bees by our local expert

That's a great article and explains a lot.  The bees are finally coming out here but still not as many as in years past.

I don't keep bees, myself. Up here, in Ohio, I've been seeing a decent amount & variety of Native bees, though. All through the past two months, the woods have been full of them, but I don't see very many out in the open.  

I haven't kept track formally but there seems to be more bees here, for the time of year. It is only just spring here in Zone 3 and I have seen quite a few huge bees here. We are in Manitoba, Canada.

The bees have definitely showed up here, and from the fruit set on the cherry trees they were out earlier even though I didn’t see many of them.  It still seems like fewer bees than usual.

I've actually seen a lot more bees than usual this year, plus a first swarm!!

We seem to have the usual mix of bees here in Chicago, good pollination on my cherry tree.

I keep hearing from UK that all insects and many bees have been scarce. Dozens of people wondering about it. It really seems an issue in the UK.

Wonder what could have caused it.

Kaarina Kreus wrote:I keep hearing from UK that all insects and many bees have been scarce. Dozens of people wondering about it. It really seems an issue in the UK.

Wonder what could have caused it.

The major factor seems to be ocean temperature  disrupting the timing  of temperature change on the west coast of the continuants.  In our case it stayed warm too long in the fall and too many warm periods late winter so that un refrigerated mason bees  that hibernate as adults starved before it was time to emerge.

It was a strange winter and an unusual spring here so that must have disrupted things.  But, they are here now in a big way.  I'm just glad it wasn't a permanent drop in bees.

This spring we're seeing a lot more bumblebees than usual, but we've worked hard to add flowers that they like to the landscape. We're in a pine/fir forest and there hasn't been much in the way of honeybees unless someone nearby brings in a hive. But we've historically had a lot of pollinators in the form of wasps, bald-faced hornets, and bumblebees. Makes it interesting to garden and harvest with them buzzing nearby but so far they're behaving well.

The yellow-jackets on the other hand are jerks and we actively try to reduce their numbers by catching the queens. Maybe that's why more of the other pollinators are showing up each year.