Queen bees are common in the center of a hive at a commercial breeder near Vacaville, California. They are sent to beekeepers all over the country to support hives that are used in the pollination of agricultural crops.

On Wednesday, the US Department of Agriculture reported that managed honeybee colonies have suffered annual losses of 42%, with summer declines outstripping winter losses for the first time.

According to the department, the declines were less steep as compared to those linked to the mysterious widespread collapse of bee colonies, first recognized in 2006, but have remained troublesome as have driven up the prices for crop pollination services.

Jeff Pettis, senior research entomologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Center's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., said beekeepers in some cases are going to replace half of their operations during the year.

According to the USDA, California has the largest number of beekeeping operations in the country. Its almond industry is the single largest user of honeybees, and it paid over $292 million for pollination services in 2012.

As per the online beekeeping community Beesource.com, last year the prices for colony rentals for a three- to five-week pollination period ranged from $140 to $200, depending on colony size.

On the basis of agency’s annual survey, the summer colony losses averaged 27.4%, including over 6,100 beekeepers managing 400,000 colonies, about 16% of the colonies managed nationwide. According to the survey, the decline outstripped the 23% winter loss.

Pettis said that they have always known that they had summer losses, but they just never tried to quantify it before.

Winters are generally stressful for hived bees, whereas spring and summer are the times when colonies are moved from crop to crop across multiple states.