Honey bees are in decline.

The number of commercial U.S. bee colonies plummeted from 5.9 million in the late 1940s to 4.3 million in 1985 and 2.7 million in 1995. The loss of one quarter of all managed honey bee colonies since 1990 signals one of the most severe declines U.S. agriculture has ever experienced in such a short period. There are fewer bee hives in the U.S. today than at any time in the last fifty years. This demise has been brought on by the spread of diseases and parasitic mites, the invasion of Africanized honey bees, exposure to pesticides, climatic fluctuations, and the elimination of government subsidies for beekeepers (USDA/ARS 1991).

In recent years some wildland habitats have lost 70% of their feral honey bees, which make hives in rocky outcroppings and other cavities (Loper 1995). Places around the U.S. are reporting pollinator scarcity (Burd 1994, Watanabe 1994). Such declines suggest that there may be far fewer honey bees servicing American croplands and wildlands than at any time in the last half century. The arrival of Africanized bees in ninetynine U.S. counties since 1990 has forced some beekeepers to abandon their apiaries in highly populated areas, for fear of liable suits from neighbors. In addition, Afficanized bees are among the carriers of parasitic mites infecting thousands of U.S. apiaries, killing off additional colonies (Hoff and Willett 1993).