Michael E. Wilson

TL;DR: Estimates of winter loss for managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies are an important measure of honey bee health and productivity and respondents who indicated poor wintering conditions, CCD, or pesticides as a leading cause of mortality suffered a higher average loss when compared to beekeepers who did not list these as potential causes.

TL;DR: The results from the eighth annual survey on winter losses and the second annual survey of summer and annual losses show total winter loss was one of the lowest reported in 8 years, and 66 % of all beekeepers had higher losses than they deemed acceptable.

TL;DR: While total winter losses were lower in 2014–2015 than in previous years, summer losses remained high, resulting in total annual colony losses of more than 40% during the survey period, the first year that total losses were higher in the summer than in the winter.

TL;DR: A bifurcation in Varroa management beliefs is found and Illuminating beekeeper stewardship is essential for a socioecological understanding of how to address challenging VarroA management and complex human–environmental production systems that have landscape-level effects.