Wildlife Wednesdays: Bees on the Increase!

Bees are very important in our ecosystem, because they are responsible for pollinating crops. Last year the population of bees was significantly down and considered an endangered specie. Wildlife and environmental companies took on the effort to protect these bees once this was mentioned. Well, the good news is that bee populations are on the rise and increasing in many states! In recent data collections released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that some states are experiencing growths in bee colony numbers of 70% or more! In just the first half of 2020, the United States as a whole added roughly 420,000 colonies to its bee populations! 

Between January 2019 and January 2020, there was a 14% increase in the number of honey bee colonies alone! The states seeing the broadest increase in bee colonies are Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Maine. Maine alone grew colony numbers by 73% since 2018 while Michigan saw a 50% increase over the same period. Between January and June of 2020, Texas bee populations grew by 38% (adding almost 100,000 colonies between 2018-2019 alone).