Research Articles

Paper Review: Seasonal Nectar Gaps in Farmland Landscapes Timberlake et al. (2019) Phenology of farmland floral resources reveals seasonal gaps in nectar availability for bumblebees This paper is a straightforward observational study examining the seasonal availability of nectar sugars across farmland habitats in North Somerset. Although the work focuses on bumblebees, many of the findings will be immediately familiar to beekeepers, particularly the identification of recurring nectar shortages through the season. The researchers measured floral sugar production across four farms and compared this with the estimated sugar requirements of local bumblebee populations. The resulting analysis revealed several distinct periods ...

For those involved in bee improvement and breeding, a key question has always been: Do bees learn Varroa-resistant behaviour from each other, or is it inherited? The researchers showed that Varroa resistance is passed on through the queen and her offspring and not by workers learning from each other. This means: Resistance is genetic, not taught Requeening is sufficient to change colony behaviour There is no need to transfer “experienced” workers ...

A recent UK study has shown something quite remarkable: your honey can reveal hidden disease in your colony before you see any symptoms ...

This new 3.5‑year field study from southeast England provides the strongest evidence to date that, at least in some English landscapes, wild colonies are both numerous and viable ...

The paper is not about bees, but its detailed pollen data (timing, intensity, season length) and species relationships provide useful context for assessing whether birch trees are beneficial companions for apiaries ...

Hidden DWV infections can wreck a colony long before any deformed wings appear. This article explains how “invisible” DWV quietly drains nectar, shortens worker lives and undermines winter survival—and why breeding for viral resistance must join Varroa control in every beekeeper’s toolkit ...

The study shows that different subspecies of Apis mellifera carry genetically-determined variation in their cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles. These hydrocarbons — the waxy coating on a bee’s body — are vital for preventing desiccation and also act as chemical cues for nestmate recognition and potentially communication within the colony ...

A 2025 study in Apidologie by Parenzan et al. reveals that Varroa destructor mites can survive far longer on honey-bee larvae than previously believed ...

In areas where both Tropilaelaps and Varroa are present it has been reported that Tropilaelaps are a far more damaging pest than Varroa. Both Varroa and Tropilaelaps have been shown to vector viruses when they feed and in one study 100% of Tropilaelaps mites examined harboured deformed wing virus (DWV) compared to only 81.8% of Varroa ...

Honeybees defend their colonies aggressively against intruders and release a potent alarm pheromone to recruit nestmates into defensive tasks. The effect of floral odours on this behaviour has never been studied, despite the relevance of these olfactory cues for the biology of bees. Here we use a novel assay to investigate social and olfactory cues that drive defensive behaviour in bees. We show that social interactions are necessary to reveal the recruiting function of the alarm pheromone and that specific floral odours—linalool and 2-phenylethanol—have the surprising capacity to block recruitment by the alarm pheromone. This effect is not due ...

In North County Dublin, Ireland, a region that has a relatively self-contained beekeeping regime with little movement of colonies or queens into the area, tolerance (co-adaptation) to varroa mites is becoming established ...

Conservation efforts for A. m. mellifera are underway in multiple European countries requiring reliable and cost-efficient molecular tools to identify purebred colonies. Here, we developed four ancestry-informative SNP assays for high sample throughput genotyping using the iPLEX Mass Array system ...

This article by Dorian Pritchard was originally published in BIM 30 Winter 2008 ...

The rich variety of native honeybee subspecies and ecotypes in Europe offers a good genetic resource for selection towards Varroa resistance ...

North Wales BIBBA groups have teamed up with South Clwyd Beekeepers and Bangor University. The first study by Bangor concerned a survey of bee wings throughout South Clwyd. The wings were analysed using DrawWing and Morphplot. The samples were collected by BIBBA breeding groups and members of SCBKA and then tested by a number of BIBBA queen rearers and the Bangor researcher Elise Keller ...

The main problem of the black honeybee in Russia and European countries is the preservation of the indigenous gene pool purity; A new approach to the classification of the honeybee M mitotypes was suggested ...

Professor Dave Goulson – Bees, Pesticide and Politics: the impact of neonicotinoids on UK bumblebees ...

abstract of thesis Catherine Eleanor Thompson: While declines in managed honeybee colonies are well documented, little is known about the health and status of feral honeybee populations. To date no studies have considered the wider pathogen burden in feral colonies, whether they represent a genetically distinct population, a remnant native population or a unique source of genetic resistance ...

Comparing Alternative Methods for Holding Virgin Honey Bee Queens for One Week in Mailing Cages before Mating ...

we compared the levels of hygiene in colonies headed by daughter queens reared from hygienic mother colonies that were either instrumentally inseminated with sperm from drones reared from hygienic colonies or allowed to mate naturally with naturally-occurring drones ...