By Julia Bayly, Bangor Daily News
Maine honey bees are dying at an alarming rate thanks to climate change. Over the last two years, beekeepers in the state have reported losing up to 50 percent of their bees annually. And it’s going to get worse, according to a top bee expert in Maine.
Drought, extreme weather events and drastic winter temperature swings helped put starvation and hive robbing as two leading causes of bee deaths last year for the first time, according to Jennifer Lund, state apiarist with the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
Honey bees in Maine and around the country were already in trouble due to the invasive parasitic Varroa destructor mite, the number one killer of bees. Now beekeepers have to contend with wild weather.
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