Last it was reported that 55.6% of honey bee colonies in the US died. But where does that number come from? The U.S. Beekeeping Survey (managed by Apiary Inspectors of America and Auburn University) is part of a 15 year old project to capture important factors impacting bees and beekeeping in the US. The results are published online every year and you can go check out the information from the previous study. The 2025-2026 survey is now available for beekeepers to fill out information about their beekeeping practices and experiences over the past year. The survey is open from April 1 – April 30 and you can access the link here: https://apiaryinspectors.org/US-beekeeping-survey
This study is extremely important for Kentucky! Many surveys fail to capture experiences of smaller or hobbyist apiaries, however 95% of Kentucky’s beekeepers are hobbyists! This means a lot of the surveys don’t resonate with many of our beekeepers. However this study is designed to capture both commercial and small scale operations. The results are able to give us a much more accurate understanding of what is impacting our bees’ health.
Last year Kentucky had a record breaking 191 participants! Y’all are amazing! But, this number only represents about 3% of the beekeepers in our state. The more participants in the study, the more representative the results will be. Lets keep the momentum up and see if we can beat that number again this year!
The greater the participation the more accurate and representative the data will be.