USDA plans new surveys and funding for honeybee decline

With an eye towards reversing the current honeybee decline, the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to get a better idea of how many honeybee colonies are lost each year and determine which factors play the biggest part in the losses, Chemical and Engineering News reports.

Honeybee populations have been in decline for years for a variety of reasons. Some possible factors include: pesticide exposure, habitat loss, mites and fungal infection. In another effort to reverse honeybee decline, USDA plans to give farmers $4 million to implement practices that would help the bees, such as planting cover crops to provide more bee food.