HARRISBURG, Pa. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has reinstated the Quarterly Colony Loss survey and will be collecting information about colony loss in the honey industry throughout the United States.
The Quarterly Colony Loss survey will be conducted over the period of September 20, 2019 through October 14, 2019. This survey collects information about colony inventory and loss from more than 400 producers with honey bee colonies in the Northeastern Region of the United States.
“The information from these surveys directly impacts our region’s beekeepers and honey producers,” said King Whetstone, director of the NASS, Northeastern Regional Field Office. “Beekeepers and producers can use the survey results when
making business plans and marketing decisions. Cooperative Extension uses the data to provide needed outreach and education and State Departments and Agencies of Agriculture use the information to set insurance values.”
In these surveys, NASS asks participants to answer a variety of questions about their colonies. For their convenience, survey participants have been given the option to respond online. As with all NASS surveys, information provided by respondents is
confidential by law. NASS safeguards the confidentiality of all responses and publishes only State and National level data, ensuring that no individual producer or operation can be identified.
The annual Honey Bee Colonies publication is available online every August. Previous publications are also available for review. These reports can be found online at http://www.nass.usda.gov. For more information on NASS surveys and reports, call the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office at 1-800-498-1518.
–USDA, NASS