Questionnaire to monitor colony losses (COLOSS Action Group)

Colony losses are a major problem worldwide and recent studies suggest that the highest percentage of losses occur during the winter months.

The possible cause for these losses in unclear, but there is general consensus that losses are not the result of a single factor, but a complex interaction between a number of factors which include pests and pathogens, nutrition, use of agrochemicals, management and reduced bee vitality and diversity.

In 2008, a COST Action group COLOSS was established to concert the national activities and the aim of the Action group is to explain and to prevent large scale losses of honeybee colonies by identifying the underlying causes and the development of emergency measures and sustainable management strategies.

To date in Ireland, no reliable data on colony losses has been documented, thus, as a member of this Action group my objective is to quantify colony losses nationwide during 2009/2010 using the short questionnaire attached. To make this survey successful and the data comparable with other European countries I need as many replies as possible, both members and non-members of FIBKA are invited to reply.

The questionnaire is totally anonymous and only requires your county of origin so that regional trends can be identified. All answers given should be based on the total number of colonies in all your apiaries (eg number of colonies apiary 1=8; number colonies apiary 2=10, thus total colonies included in questionnaire=18).

The success of this questionnaire depends on you the beekeeper so I would be very grateful if you would please take few minutes to complete the questionnaire and return it to me by email or post. Both addresses are given at the top of the questionnaire.

I am looking forward to your replies.

Thank you

Mary F Coffey

A print version (Word) of the COLOSS 2009 - 2010 Questionnaire is available here