KANSAS CITY — The US Department of Agriculture in its annual Honey report March 14 said US honey production in 2024 was down 3.6% from 2023 despite a 2.6% increase in the number of colonies as yield per colony dropped 6%.

Honey production totaled 134,393,000 lbs, down 3.6% from 139,471,000 lbs in 2023. There were 2,597,000 honey producing colonies in 2024, up 2.6% from 2,532,000 colonies in 2023. Honey yield per colony averaged 51.7 lbs in 2024, down 6% from 55.1 lbs in 2023.

The top five honey-producing states in 2024 were North Dakota (36,260,000 lbs), California (13,330,000 lbs), South Dakota (13,250,000 lbs), Montana (10,082,000 lbs) and Minnesota (6,858,000 lbs), with South Dakota the second largest over California and other states in the same order in 2023.

Producer honey stocks on Dec. 15, 2024, totaled 43,394,000 lbs, down 1.5% from a year earlier.

The price for all types of honey sold through cooperatives, private and retail channels averaged $2.69 per lb in 2024, up 5.5% from $2.55 per lb in 2023. Total value of production in 2024 was $361,517,000, up 1.6% from $355,651,000 the prior year.

Source: USDA and Sosland Publishing Co.

Despite headlines about the demise of honey bees from threats including pesticides, parasites (such as the Varroa mite), fungus (such as Nosema ceranae), viruses, bacteria, colony collapse disorder and extreme weather, the world’s honeybee population is not at risk, and in fact, there may be more honey bees now than ever before, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, an international, science-based nonprofit organization that works to protect invertebrates and their habitats. Some estimate more than one-third of the world’s food production, including about $15 billion of US crops, relies on honey bee pollination.