Study population
The survey recorded 627 responses all over Belgium, from which 355 were
considered complete and valid (i.e. 213 and 142 beekeepers with colony
mortality rate <10% and ≥10%, respectively). These valid
answers represent 6.7% of the registered beekeepers’ number (N = 5852)
in Belgium in 2017 suggesting the survey captured a reasonably
representative sample. The proportion of beekeepers in Flanders and
Wallonia who participated in the survey is representative of the Belgian
beekeepers’ repartition in each part of the country (Table 1 ).
Indeed, the participation rate for the entire Belgian territory was
10.71% and was statistically representative of the sample of registered
beekeepers on the FASFC database (Chi-squared test (1df;
α = 0.05) = 0.0007; p -value = 0.98). The completion rate (fully
completed surveys) was 56.6%; the number of respondents was also
statistically representative of the number of participants to the survey
(Chi-squared test (1df; α = 0.05) = 0.14; p- value
= 0.70) (Table 1 ). In total, the respondents managed 5,781
living colonies on 1 April 2017 with an average of 16.3 (standard
deviation, std=20.3) hives per beekeeper. Nationwide, beekeeper’s
average experience was of 16.9 (std = 15.6) years and the average
mortality rate for 2017 was 14.5% (std = 22.4). The average score
(scale from 0 to 100) given by the beekeepers to their risk aversion was
60.4 with std 13.8 (Table 2 ).
Table 1. Participation
and completion rates to the survey among Belgian beekeepers in 2017