The May 1, 1918, report, received just as this bulletin goes to press, shows that the losses of colonies of bees during the past winter have been, for the United States as a whole, 18.7 per cent of the total number; in other words, almost one out of every five colonies has perished. As the reports to the bureau are in the main from the better class of beekeepers it is to be feared that the wastage has been even greater.

Under the present circumstances, this loss assumes an aspect tragic not only to the multitude, almost a million, of industrious and interesting insect communities whose ardent haste and joyous hum have been stilled, but to their human erstwhile beneficiaries.

The principal causes of winter loss, as reported, are shown by States in Table V, being in order starvation, cold, queenlessness, weakened condition resulting from disease or poor honey, such as late unripened aster for the winter food supply, a small cluster of bees due to late swarming or other causes, and lack of young bees from any cause but due usually to a failing queen or an unfavorable autumn for brood rearing.

While the losses under such conditions are very severe, poor beekeeping is tending to its own correction, as brood diseases, once they attain a foothold in a community, soon eliminate the inefficient and careless beekeepers by eliminating their bees, while the informed and attentive apiarist is able to control these diseases, though sometimes only through the expenditure of much time, effort, and expense. 

Jones, Samuel Augustus. Honeybees and honey production in the United States. No. 685. US Dept. of Agriculture, 1918.

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