How Long Do Bees Live? Study Shows That a Honey Bee’s Life Expectancy Dropped by Half Since the 1970s

Like all living creatures, it is expected for honey bees to grow old naturally and eventually die. While the lifespan of honey bees has been noted, recent research shows that a honey bee's life expectancy, when kept in a laboratory and controlled setting, is 50% lesser than five decades ago.

Higher Honey Bee Colony Turnover Rates Observed

According to Science Daily, the turnover of the colony is not surprising for those in the beekeeping industry. Naturally, honey bee colonies age and eventually dissipate. However, in the past ten years, beekeepers from the U.S. have noticed higher rates of losses. This meant more colonies needed to be substituted to keep the operations going.

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A Honey Bee's Life Expectancy

Researchers from the University of Maryland embarked on a journey to understand why this was happening. This recent study was published in Scientific Reports, and unlike other existing studies, it showed a general downtrend in the lifespan of honey bees that were not directly related to environmental conditions. This connection hinted that genetics could have played a bigger role than previously perceived.

Based on Science Daily's report, lead author Anthony Nearman mentioned that as part of the study, the team isolated honey bees from their colony before they reached adulthood. He further noted the factors that reduced the bees' lifespan before that specific period.

Nearman also mentioned that by doing so, they could infer the involvement of genetics. If the team can pinpoint and isolate particular genetic elements, there is potential to breed honey bees that live longer.

This reduced life expectancy was first noticed by Nearman when he and his research partner, vanEngelsdrop, were performing a study on the criterion protocols necessary for lab-raised honey bees.

Like other previously published studies, the researchers gathered pupae from the hives at a stage where such pupae had less than 24 full hours to emerge from the specific cells they were kept in. These bees were reared in an incubator and nurtured until adulthood in specialized containers.

While assessing the results of adding plain water to the honey bee's existing sugar-filled fluids, Nearman had a noteworthy observation. He noticed that regardless of the bees' diet, the median life expectancy of these nurtured bees was only half compared to those bees that underwent similar procedures during the 1970s.

Nearman expressed that the standardized procedures for cultivating honey bees in laboratory setups were only formalized in the 21st century. He further mentioned that contrary to perceptions of longer lifespan, the bees' mortality significantly shortened.

While laboratory setups do not capture the natural environment in which a typical honey bee grows, scientists hold that the particular lifespan-shortening contributors will affect the bees across different environments.

Science Daily also mentions that other studies reported the correlation between honey bee lifespan and a period of foraging and production of honey. Nevertheless, this recent research connects such factors to explain colony turnover rates.

The University's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources share that these researchers are bound for the next steps. In this next phase, they will have to compare the lifespan patterns of honey bees across the United States and other nations. If the researchers note significant longevity differences, they can then pinpoint and study possible factors, including viruses, pesticide usage, and genetics.