40 Percent of Honeybees Died Last Year, Survey Shows

More than 40 percent of honeybee hives died this past year, according to a recent survey. The number is preliminary, but is the second-highest annual loss recorded to date.

"What we're seeing with this bee problem is just a loud signal that there's some bad things happening with our agro-ecosystems," study co-author Keith Delaplane of the University of Georgia said in a press release. "We just happen to notice it with the honeybee because they are so easy to count."

Researchers did not mention the cause behind bees' demise, but researchers noted that colony collapse was not necessarily the culprit.

"The winter loss numbers are more hopeful especially combined with the fact that we have not seen much sign of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) for several years, but such high colony losses in the summer and year-round remain very troubling," Jeff Pettis, a co-author of the survey who heads the federal government's bee research laboratory in Beltsville told the New York Times.

According to the survey, the state worst affected was Oklahoma, which lost more than 60 percent of its hives. In comparison, Hawaii lost less than 14 percent of its hives.

"If you've ever eaten a strawberry or a blueberry, you ought to thank a bee," said Toni Burnham, president of the Maryland State Beekeepers Association.

The survey included more than 400,000 colonies.