C.S.I. Pollen - an opportunity for beekeepers to help research

摘要

Bee scientists agree that amongst the possible causes of bee decline, land use changes are probably the most significant. These have led to a reduction not only in the quantity, but also in the diversity of forage available to bees. Whilst much is known about honey bee nutrition, there is surprisingly little informationavailable about the effects of food diversity on honey bee wellbeing. In recent years, the results of surveys organised by members of the honey bee research association COLOSS (http://coloss.org/) have been documenting winter losses. The most recent results7 show not only an association between varroa control and colony losses, but also an indication that colony losses may be higher in areas where bees have access to mass flowering crops such as oilseed rape and maize. Some may see this as incontrovertible evidence that the bees are being poisoned by neonicotinoid insecticides which are widely used on these crops. An alternative explanation, however, is that these crops are grown in areas of intensive agriculture where there is little forage for bees apart from the crops themselves, which may only flower for a short period. Furthermore, pollen from these crops may be of poor nutritional quality.3,4 How can we investigate this question further.