A big contributor in the steep decline in honey bees in America has to do with the bee-keeping industry itself. When I decided to get into beekeeping more than twenty years ago, I got a book from a bee supply company and followed it's guidance. The book recommended the use of various antibiotics, acaricides (for mites), protein supplements, heavy sugar feeding, and the purchase of pure Italian honey bees from an apiary (all were located in southern states). Even if you captured a swarm of "wild" bees, the book recommended that you replace the wild queen with one of pure lineage from an apiary to maximize honey production.
Decades of breeding bees for maximum honey production, aided with all those artificial treatments, has resulted in a very shallow gene pool and pretty yellow-orange bees that can gather a ton of honey, but can't survive the elements. It's like comparing a native wild turkey; smart, able to survive the coldest winter and elude predators, with one of those fat white farm turkeys that will die like flies if they even got wet.
I currently have a couple of hives of bees from a wild swarm that I've propagated for twelve years and that get no treatments of any kind, other than a little sugar syrup if they really need it in the early spring. More and more small beekeepers are getting away from modern methods and going back to the old-school ways, but like many things, most just follow the corporate line.
Decades of breeding bees for maximum honey production, aided with all those artificial treatments, has resulted in a very shallow gene pool and pretty yellow-orange bees that can gather a ton of honey, but can't survive the elements. It's like comparing a native wild turkey; smart, able to survive the coldest winter and elude predators, with one of those fat white farm turkeys that will die like flies if they even got wet.
I currently have a couple of hives of bees from a wild swarm that I've propagated for twelve years and that get no treatments of any kind, other than a little sugar syrup if they really need it in the early spring. More and more small beekeepers are getting away from modern methods and going back to the old-school ways, but like many things, most just follow the corporate line.