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