Hive Wire Texas
Texas bee decline. New filings, studies and numbers. Every item links to its source.
Texas Ledger
USDA counts Texas honey bee colonies every quarter. These are the official numbers, from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, for operations with five or more colonies.
Jul–Sep 2025 to Apr–Jun 2026: Texas lost 93,300 colonies. Over the same four quarters 140,500 colonies were added by splitting hives or buying bees, and 55,600 more were requeened or restocked with packages or nucs. The count stays up because the losses get replaced. It does not mean the bees survived.
The Texas count is not a count of Texas bees. USDA counts a colony in every state it passes through during a quarter, and the peak figure includes hives trucked in. Since 2024 the Texas count at the start of a quarter has ranged from 88,000 to 355,000. Most of that swing is hives trucked in and out: in Jan–Mar 2025 alone, about 138,000 hives were moved into Texas. The rest is splits and purchases.
The loss rate is figured against the peak. USDA divides colonies lost by every colony present that quarter, trucked-in hives included. The "of start" column divides by the colonies Texas started the quarter with.
| Quarter | Start | Peak (with moved-in) | Moved in | Lost | Loss % (USDA, of peak) | Loss % of start | Added | Renovated | Added per colony lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 355,000 | 375,000 | 20,000 | 31,000 | 8% | 8.7% | 62,000 | 16,500 | 2 |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | 225,000 | 335,000 | 110,000 | 38,000 | 11% | 16.9% | 59,000 | 23,000 | 1.55 |
| Oct–Dec 2025 | 154,000 | 235,000 | 81,000 | 16,300 | 7% | 10.6% | 16,500 | 1,600 | 1.01 |
| Jul–Sep 2025 | 139,000 | 156,000 | 17,000 | 8,000 | 5% | 5.8% | 3,000 | 14,500 | 0.38 |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | 330,000 | 380,000 | 50,000 | 30,000 | 8% | 9.1% | 68,000 | 73,000 | 2.27 |
| Jan–Mar 2025 | 162,000 | 300,000 | 138,000 | 25,000 | 8% | 15.4% | 62,300 | 22,000 | 2.49 |
| Oct–Dec 2024 | 101,000 | 190,000 | 89,000 | 17,000 | 9% | 16.8% | 1,900 | 390 | 0.11 |
| Jul–Sep 2024 | 88,000 | 107,000 | 19,000 | 7,000 | 7% | 8% | 1,200 | 1,300 | 0.17 |
| Apr–Jun 2024 | 290,000 | 300,000 | 10,000 | 38,000 | 13% | 13.1% | 43,000 | 74,000 | 1.13 |
| Jan–Mar 2024 | 205,000 | 290,000 | 85,000 | 28,000 | 10% | 13.7% | 67,000 | 46,000 | 2.39 |
What beekeepers reported harming Texas colonies
Percent of Texas colonies affected each quarter. A colony can have more than one.
| Quarter | Pesticides | Varroa mites | Other pests | Diseases | Other | Unknown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 4.3% | 11.2% | 7% | 0.8% | 3% | 0.7% |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | 7.4% | 18.9% | 2.5% | 0.5% | 3.5% | 0.7% |
| Oct–Dec 2025 | 1.2% | 17.9% | 1.8% | <0.5% | 8.5% | 4.3% |
| Jul–Sep 2025 | 3.5% | 12.2% | 6.1% | 1.4% | 2% | 2.6% |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | 6.8% | 17% | 8% | 7% | 2% | 4.8% |
| Jan–Mar 2025 | 10.3% | 27% | 14% | 4.2% | 5.3% | 5.3% |
Notes
Added: a new or replacement colony, made by splitting or bought whole. Renovated: an existing colony that was requeened or given a nuc or package. "Moved in" is the peak minus the starting count, which is how USDA defines the peak. USDA revises earlier quarters in later reports, and this table shows the latest published figures. "<0.5" means USDA printed (Z), less than half a unit. Each quarter links to its report.