An estimated 50 to 70 percent of hives kept by beekeepers died, said Cindy Kalis, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The losses are in keeping with heavy fatality rates experienced since 2006 — a year when 600,000 bee colonies in the U.S. mysteriously fled their homes and disappeared, said James Tew, Ohio State University’s state honeybee specialist. Bees annually pollinate Ohio crops worth $44 million, including berries, fruits and vegetables. Honey sales yield $1.4 million, according to Agriculture Department entomologist Barb Bloetscher. In the 1920s, Ohio beekeepers kept 120,000 colonies. Today, there are about 30,000.