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State Honey Profile 2023 harvest
Rank-

Kentucky

NASS Region 2 - alternate public context

2023 production300Klbs

0.3% of the U.S. crop 19.0%

Yield / colony
30 lb
-37.5% vs US
Price / lb
$6.21
+103.6% vs US
Colonies
10,000
-91.7% vs US
Stressor load
-
- vs US
Source: USDA / NASS · public aggregate datahivelinks /data/kentucky
01

Production & colony health

The latest USDA honey row for Kentucky pairs production, colony count, yield, price, and colony stressors without filling suppressed values.

Honey profile

2024 → 2025 movement

Year-over-year change across every reported honey metric for Kentucky.

Colonies10,000 42.9% from 7,000
Yield / colony30 lb 16.7% from 36 lb
Production300K lbs 19.0% from 252K lbs
Price / lb$6.21 1.5% from $6.12
Crop value$1.86M 20.8% from $1.54M
Benchmark

Indexed vs. U.S.

Each metric as a percentage above or below the U.S. baseline (center line = U.S. average).

derived
Yield / colony-38%30 lbs / colony
Price / lb+104%$6.21
Production / state avg-95%300K lbs
Crop value / state avg-89%$1.86M
Colonies / state avg-92%10,000
Colony health

Stressor fingerprint

Share of Kentucky colonies hit by each stressor (April-June), against the U.S. profile. Hover any axis or bar to compare.

aggregate
Varroa mites: 42.0%Other pests: 3.0%Pesticides: 2.7%Other: -Diseases: 2.0%Unknown: 5.0%VarroaOtherPesticidesOtherDiseasesUnknown
KYU.S. baseline
Varroa mites42.0%
Unknown5.0%
Other pests3.0%
Pesticides2.7%
Diseases2.0%
Other-

Varroa 42.0% state vs. 27.3% U.S.

02

Over time

The arc matters as much as the latest number. Stressor pressure is the one metric we can already track quarter to quarter for every state.

Varroa pressure, quarter by quarter

Share of Kentucky colonies reporting varroa mites across the official Honey Bee Colonies stressor series.

aggregate
0.0%12.5%25.0%37.5%50.0%Q1 '24: 9.0%Q2 '24: 42.0%Q1 '24Q2 '24

Official Honey Bee Colonies stressor rows only. This chart does not synthesize honey, yield, or pollination time-series shapes.

03

Pollination & opportunity

The opportunity index keeps Kentucky's crop demand, regional pollination fee, local colony supply, and colony health pressure visible as separate weighted inputs.

Opportunity index

Where the gap is

A transparent, weighted blend - directional context for pollination planning, not a forecast.

limited
0OPPORTUNITY

Composite of the four factors below, each scored 0-100 then weighted.

Crop demandw 40% - -
-
Pollination ratew 25% - -
-
Supply tightnessw 20% - -
-
Colony healthw 15% - -
-
Crop demand overlay

No crop selected · Kentucky

-bearing acres
$59benchmark fee
0.40 hives/acstocking rate
-implied hives needed
04

Baselines & context

The closing cards keep structural Census baselines and related reporting states visible without mixing them into the annual honey row.

Census baseline

2022 Census of Agriculture

Structural baseline - independent of the annual honey survey.

direct
Colony inventory22,738
Honey production483K lbs
Honey sales$2.31M
Operations with inventory2,965