Beekeepers across the country are reporting high rates of honeybee loss this season, and Texas is no exception.
A recent survey from Project Apis m., a nonprofit dedicated to beekeeping science, found that American commercial beekeepers lost about 62% of their bees between June and March — the highest rate in almost two decades. In Texas, commercial beekeepers lost around 67% of their bees on average.
Beekeeping industry experts have sounded the alarm that these losses could have a detrimental impact on produce that relies on honeybees as pollinators, including California almonds.
Garett Slater, a professor and honeybee expert at Texas A&M University’s Department of Entomology, said it’s possible some Texas crops, such as watermelons, could also take a hit.
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“It depends if the beekeepers can make up their numbers or not,” Slater said. “It’s kind of a waiting game, and we’ll learn more in the next few months.”
Scientists are still trying to figure out why honeybees are struggling. According to Project Apis m., experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and university labs are investigating a range of possible contributing factors, including pathogens, pesticide use and environmental impacts.
“The USDA … mobilized quickly to collect samples in California, and we anticipate results soon,” said Steven Coy, American Honey Producers Association President, in a statement shared by Project Apis m.
Michael Minasi
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A person with Two Hives Honey reaches into a beehive in this photo from July of 2024,.
Austin-area beekeepers reflect on losses
In Central Texas, hobbyist beekeeping has grown in popularity since a 2012 bill gave landowners the opportunity to gain an agricultural valuation on their property by keeping bees — effectively, a tax cut.
Sarah Denman’s business Bee Salty leases and maintains hives for landowners throughout Central Texas. Denman isn’t a commercial beekeeper — she estimates she maintains between 350 and 400 hives, compared to the thousands often overseen by commercial operations — but she, too, has noticed bees struggling this year.
“I have lost more bees this year than I have ever before, and I think there’s a bunch of variables for that,” Denman said.
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Denman said she suspects pesticide use may be partially to blame. Additionally, she said unfavorable rain patterns in the spring and fall last year made it hard for bees to build up food stores before winter.
Kat Jones, who works with Denman and also owns her own small apiary, lost about a tenth of her own hives in early March.
“It was a very up and down winter, and that last really cold snap that happened right at the end of February was pretty hard on the bees,” she said.
A lone honeybee perches on their hive.
Tiny enemies
Weather swings in Central Texas can’t account for nationwide losses, but Jones said she believes many bee habitats around the country are experiencing difficult climate shifts.
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Slater, however, believes a long-time enemy of the honeybee is likely to blame: the varroa mite, a parasite that feeds on bees and transmits viruses. He said the mites have appeared more resistant to the pesticide commonly used to treat them over the past five years. It’s one possiblity scientists are currently investigating.
That’s why Slater’s lab at Texas A&M is focused on breeding bees that are resistant to varroa mites.
“Even if we switch to a new treatment, there’s always going to be a risk … of resistance,” he said. “So I think the most long-term sustainable solution is always going to be breeding.”
Denman said she believes the increased popularity of hobbyist beekeeping may also play a role in the spread of viruses. It’s great to have more pollinators around, she said — but there are also challenges that come with density, with more bees competing for resources and potentially sharing mites with other colonies.
“If you have an overpopulated area, it’s easy for disease to spread, right?” she said.
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However, after around a decade of working with the pollinators, she feels hopeful that bees will bounce back: they’re resilient, she said.
“They came out of winter, a little bit more puny than they have in years past, but I see them recovering and doing a lot better now,” she said. “So I feel really hopeful for this year.”
AUSTIN, Texas — Tensions remained high in downtown Austin on Sunday following an anti-ICE protest that organizers say ended with multiple arrests and an aggressive police response.
Members of the activist group Dare to Struggle Austin said they had been gathered outside the Travis County Jail since 9 p.m. Saturday as they awaited the release of protesters taken into custody during the demonstration.
During a Sunday afternoon press conference, organizers described what they called a brutal response by law enforcement during the protest, which they said drew more than 100 people to the area outside the JJ Pickle Federal Building downtown.
The protest was held in response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Organizers accused both the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Austin Police Department of cracking down on demonstrators, saying officers charged into the crowd using bicycles and fired pepper spray pellets.
At least seven people were arrested, according to organizers, including one person they say was detained after the protest had ended while walking to their car. The Austin Police Department estimates they will have more accurate arrest numbers to report on Monday.
Police detain protesters as tensions rise at Austin’s ‘End ICE Terror’ protest
The confrontation followed hours of escalating tension between protesters and law enforcement, and as demonstrators blocked traffic at a busy downtown intersection.
“I think that it’s definitely not okay that people are dying in detention centers and getting shot by ICE agents,” said Emilia, a member of Dare to Struggle Austin. “That’s what’s important, not traffic.”
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At Sunday’s press conference, the group called for all arrested protesters to be released and for charges against them to be dropped. Organizers also demanded murder charges against Jonathon Ross and all ICE agents involved in Good’s death, charges against officers they accuse of using excessive force, and for ICE to leave Austin.
Gov. Greg Abbott responded to the protest on social media, writing “Texas is not Minnesota,” and saying the Texas Department of Public Safety would not put up with defiant protesters.
In a statement to CBS Austin, he said, “What happened in Minnesota is the direct result of years of reckless and dangerous rhetoric from national Democratic leaders. Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers have the right to defend themselves while carrying out their lawful responsibility. Using a vehicle as a weapon, threatening officers, or attempting to obstruct the enforcement of the law is dangerous and inexcusable. ICE agents should never have to fear for their lives for doing their jobs. In Texas, we back the men and women in uniform, we enforce the law, and put public safety as a top priority.” – Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
AUSTIN — For the first time in modern Texas politics, Democrats will field candidates in every one of the state’s 150 House districts.
It’s a milestone party leaders hope will boost turnout, money and organization up and down the ballot, even as Gov. Greg Abbott enters the cycle with a well-tested ground game of his own.
Democratic leaders say the move is less about flipping deeply red districts and more about expanding the electorate and forcing Republicans to defend territory they have long taken for granted.
Houston Rep. Christina Morales, the new chief of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee, said a full slate of candidates creates infrastructure that can benefit statewide races, regardless of the odds in individual districts.
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Campaigns that once existed only on paper now bring door-knocking, phone banking and voter registration efforts, she said.
Morales also is coordinating with national Democrats, trying to harness energy from Texas’ high-profile Senate race, marked by a bitter GOP feud.
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In that primary, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn faces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston.
The Democratic Senate contest, featuring state Rep. James Talarico of Austin and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, has drawn wide voter interest and donor support.
But attention and money only go so far.
Abbott enters the cycle with a major advantage: a mature, statewide voter-mobilization network built over decades of Republican control.
“Abbott has made it his own,” said longtime GOP strategist Thomas Graham, citing sustained relationship-building at the precinct level and focus on local concerns. “Democrats are still rebuilding a statewide party. The ground game heavily favors the governor.”
The main switchyard at a Midlothian power plant. The federal government is sending Texas more than $60 million to strengthen the state’s power grid. Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune
Texas is home to approximately 400 data centers — some currently operational, others still under construction and a number that are still in the planning stages. Experts say the boom comes with a lot of uncertainty.
Texas data center power demand
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What they’re saying:
“Data centers are a relatively large power demand in a small area, something like, you know, 100 or 200 megawatts of power. That’s more than a small city or a small town would be consuming itself,” said Carey King, a research scientist with the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Over the past year, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has received more than 200 gigawatts worth of large load interconnection requests, approximately 73% of which are from data centers. That has led to questions about whether the state’s grid is up to the task of supplying power to the facilities.
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“Many of us who suffered through winter storm Uri still have PTSD over, you know, fears that the grid won’t be able to meet demand,” said Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas, a local nonprofit working to safeguard the state’s natural environment.
Question of infrastructure
That’s not the only question. King points out that there is also a question of whether all the proposed data centers will actually be built. He says if they don’t end up materializing, it could spell trouble for anyone making investment decisions based on the projections. And if infrastructure is built to accommodate the needs of projects that never come to fruition, those costs could be passed off to consumers in the form of higher rates.
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Experts say these speculative data center projects have led to uncertainty around how much power will actually be needed to meet the demands of the state’s data centers.
Senate Bill 6, which was signed into law last June, outlined new requirements for data center projects, including stipulating that data centers put up more capital up front for things like transmission studies and interconnection fees. The bill is, in part, intended to reduce some of that uncertainty around speculative power loads.
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Potential environmental impact
But concerns still remain around the potential environmental impact of the state’s data centers.
“There are an estimated 130 new gas-powered power plants that have been proposed for Texas, in part to meet this demand for data centers, and if they’re all built, that’s going to have as much climate pollution as 27 million cars,” said Metzger.
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Above all, Metzger says the biggest uncertainty is water, as there is no central entity in the state that collects and compiles information on those needs.
On average, a single data center consumes millions of gallons of water annually, according to researchers with the University of Michigan. Metzger says that’s of particular concern here in Texas, where water supply is already being pushed to its limits.
“Texas is a very drought-prone state, and already, you know, you know, according to the Water Development Board, you know, we don’t have enough supply to meet demand,” said Metzger. “There is no way to make more water. And so, I think ultimately, you know that that could be the greatest concern for the state.”
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Over the past year, residents across Central Texas have spoken out about data centers in places like Round Rock and Taylor, citing additional concerns including falling property values, noise, and health impacts.
What’s next:
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Moving forward, experts recommend that local leaders undergo long-range planning to determine whether they’re able to allocate limited resources to data centers in the long run prior to approving these projects.
The Source: Information in this article comes from FOX 7 interviews with experts.
