Korean Beekeeping on Brink of Collapse as 10 Billion Honeybees Disappear

""We're on the edge of a cliff; honeybees could go extinct anytime soon."

Mr Lee Young-ki, a 69-year-old beekeeper in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province in South Korea, let out a deep sigh as he opened up an empty hive box. Since this January, at the head of Haenam County in South Jeolla Province, reports have been made by apiaries all across the country where honeybees went missing all at once. Mr Lee’s apiary was no exception. Out of 120 hive boxes, only 20 boxes managed to survive. Not only that, the remaining honeybees were mostly dying on the floor, unable to fly.

According to a joint public-private investigation carried out by the Rural Development Administration(RDA), Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency(QIA), local governments and Korea Beekeeping Association, honeybees from 416,409 hive boxes nationwide disappeared between October 2021 to March 2022. Assuming that each hive box has a population of 25,000 honeybees, the total number of missing bees amount to 10 billion."

Source: Reporter Lee Jae-un of the Newstree

Link : Korean Beekeeping on Brink of Collapse as 10 Billion Honeybees Disappear (newstree.kr)