Location: Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research
Project Number: 6066-30500-004-015-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 30, 2025
End Date: Sep 28, 2027
Objective:
Develop collaborative research efforts to better understand honey bee colony health- Honey bee colony losses continue to remain high in the United States. The upper Midwest region comprising of North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota are critical summer foraging areas for honey bee colonies. Beekeepers from across the US regularly move colonies to these regions and colonies will build up on the forage available in these regions between June and August prior to making their way back to California by the end of the year for the next season’s almond pollination.
Sunflowers are one of the major summer flowering crops in this region and more recently, beekeepers have reported suffering substantial colony loss on colonies when placed near sunflower fields. Sunflowers have always constituted a quality nectar and pollen source, and there has been little to no understanding as to what could be causing these colony losses.
The research objectives for this project are:
1. To understand the colony level effects of placing honey bee colonies near sunflower fields in the Upper Midwest
2. To assess the pesticide impacts on honey bees when placed near sunflower fields
3. To evaluate the nutrition for foraging honey bees near sunflowers.
Approach:
To increase profitability for American beekeepers and to improve farm and orchard productivities for American fruit, nut and oil seed growers, it is important to improve honey bee health and reduce ongoing colony losses. In line with the USDA Secretary's mission on ensuring agricultural productivity and reducing uncertainty for stakeholders, this agreement will support research projects to monitor and track honey bee colony health in the upper Midwest specifically focusing on regions of North Dakota (ND) that specialize in sunflower production systems. With a focus on following beekeeper stakeholders as they move through their summer migratory path through ND, this project will evaluate multiple stressors related to pesticide exposure, crop drought stress and other related factors that impact honey bee colonies foraging in the region. The results from this study will help U.S. beekeepers adapt the nutrition and migratory management practices for their hives. The findings will have cascading effects for the American beekeeping industry and will enable strategies that strengthen the pollination services beekeepers provide, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food for all Americans.