Table 2. Honey bee colony seasonal mortalities calculated for the different clusters during EPILOBEE 2012–2014 with the features of each cluster.
| Cluster (number of apiaries) | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (n = 103) | (n = 1299) | (n = 633) | (n = 794) | (n = 684) | (n = 885) | (n = 360) | ||
| Seasonal mortality (%) | 7.81 | 1.81 | 3.40 | 2.48 | 2.00 | 3.98 | 2.04 | |
| Typology | hobby | hobby | hobby | hobby | part time | part time | professional | |
| Size (apiary & operation) | NCOR | size 1 | size 1 | size 1 | size 2 | size 2 | size 3 | |
| Age of the beekeeper (years) | NCOR | 45–65 | Over 65 | Over 65 | 45–65 | 30–45 | 30–45 | |
| Beekeeper background | Training | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apiarist book | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Cooperative treatment against Varroa | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | |
| Apiary management | Q & S production | NCOR | No information | No information | No | More than 10 | ||
| Q & S bought | No information | No information | No | More than 10 Q & 5 S | ||||
| Management | No information | No information | Lvstk | Production + HC + Livestock | ||||
| Subspecies | Buckfast / Hybrid / A. m. lig. | Buckfast / Hybrid / A. m. lig. | Local bees / A. m. iberiensis | A. m. carnica / A. m. ccm | ||||
| Colonies merged | NCOR | NCOR | No | Yes | ||||
| Clinical disease observed | AFB | No clinical disease observed | Varrosis | No clinical disease observed | NCOR | Varrosis | No clinical disease observed | |
| Health events | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | |
| Previous winter mortality (%) | 21–50 | No mortality | 21–50 | No mortality | 6–10 | 1–5 | 6–10 | |
The mortality rates of all the clusters were significantly different from each other (p<0.05) except between the clusters S5 and S7 (p = 0.48). Q & S = queens and swarms; HC = Health Conditions; Lvstk = Livestock; A. m. = Apis melifera; ccm = carpatica, caucasia or macedonia; lig. = ligustica; bkp = beekeeper; org = organisation; size 1 = operation ≤50 colonies and apiary ≤ 20 colonies; size 2 = operation ≤50 and apiary between 21 and 50; size 3 = operation between 51 and 300 and apiary >50. NCOR: No Category Over Represented, i.e. for a given variable and a given cluster, among all the categories, none was over represented. No information = no information provided for these apiaries. For further details on clusters and categories, please refer to the text.