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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Bee Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #325895
Title: Assessing the health of colonies and individual honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in a commercial beekeeping operation

Author
item SMART, MATTHEW - Us Geological Survey (USGS)
item Pettis, Jeffery
item RICE, NATHAN - Non ARS Employee
item BROWNING, ZACH - Browning Honey Company
item SPIVAK, MARLA - University Of Minnesota

Submitted to: PLOS ONE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2016
Publication Date: 3/30/2016
Citation: Smart, M.D., Pettis, J.S., Rice, N., Browning, Z., Spivak, M. 2016. Assessing the health of colonies and individual honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in a commercial beekeeping operation. PLoS One. e0152685. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152685.

Interpretive Summary: Honey bee health was assessed every six weeks for 3 years in colonies owned by a migratory beekeeper whose bees were located in North Dakota for the summer and California for almond pollination every winter. The goal was to identify relationships among health measures of the colony and individual bees that impact or predict overwintering survival. This study uncovered physiological indicators of differential health in colonies and individual bees that predicted annual apiary survival against the backdrop of overall quality of the landscape surrounding apiaries. This information may help beekeepers better prepare their colonies for almond pollination and/or winter survival.

Technical Abstract: Metrics of honey bee health were assessed every six weeks over three years in colonies owned by a migratory beekeeper. The colonies were located in six apiaries during the summer months in North Dakota and were transported to California for almond pollination every winter. We previously characterized and quantified the influence of land use on survival and productivity of colonies positioned in the same six apiaries and found that apiaries surrounded by more land in uncultivated forage experienced greater annual survival, and generally more honey production. Our aim here was to identify relationships among measures of colony and individual bee health that impact and/or predict overwintering survival. We tested the hypothesis that differences in apiary health metrics would emerge (relating to the land use as shown in Smart et al., in review) wherein colonies in apiaries surrounded by more favorable land use conditions would experience improved health. We modeled colony and individual bee health indices at a critical time point (fall, prior to overwintering) and related it to eventual spring survival for California almond pollination. We identified key colony and individual bee measurements predictive of overwintering survival that may be taken into account by beekeepers to use as a reference index to identify weak vs. strong colonies in the fall and to predict survival among apiaries over the winter. At the colony level these measures included pollen collection, brood area, and Varroa mite levels, while at the individual bee level defensin 1, vitellogenin, and lysozyme 2 where important markers of overwinter survival. This study uncovered physiological indicators of differential health in colonies and individual bees that predicted annual apiary survival against the backdrop of overall quality of the landscape surrounding apiaries.This information may help beekeepers better prepare their colonies for almond pollination and/or winter survival.