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State Honey Profile 2023 harvest
Rank-

Virginia

NASS Region 2 - alternate public context

2023 production195Klbs

0.2% of the U.S. crop 26.7%

Yield / colony
39 lb
-18.8% vs US
Price / lb
$8.58
+181.3% vs US
Colonies
5,000
-95.9% vs US
Stressor load
-
- vs US
Source: USDA / NASS · public aggregate datahivelinks /data/virginia
01

Production & colony health

The latest USDA honey row for Virginia 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 Virginia.

Colonies5,000 28.6% from 7,000
Yield / colony39 lb 2.6% from 38 lb
Production195K lbs 26.7% from 266K lbs
Price / lb$8.58 8.1% from $7.94
Crop value$1.67M 20.8% from $2.11M
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-19%39 lbs / colony
Price / lb+181%$8.58
Production / state avg-97%195K lbs
Crop value / state avg-91%$1.67M
Colonies / state avg-96%5,000
Colony health

Stressor fingerprint

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

aggregate
Varroa mites: 20.5%Other pests: 7.4%Pesticides: -Other: 6.7%Diseases: 5.8%Unknown: 0.9%VarroaOtherPesticidesOtherDiseasesUnknown
VAU.S. baseline
Varroa mites20.5%
Other pests7.4%
Other6.7%
Diseases5.8%
Unknown0.9%
Pesticides-

Varroa 20.5% 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 Virginia 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: 21.0%Q2 '24: 20.5%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 Virginia'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

Apple · Virginia

Open Apple profile →
9,600bearing acres
$59benchmark fee
0.40 hives/acstocking rate
3,881implied hives needed

Apple alone implies 3,881 colony placements against 5,000 honey-producing colonies in-state - a 0.8x gap typically met by migratory operations.

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 inventory23,116
Honey production501K lbs
Honey sales$3.06M
Operations with inventory2,701