The old health idiom “you are what you eat” also applies to honeybees.
Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are studying how pollen diversity affects the nutritional quality of honeybee diets, including asking foundational questions about how nutrition can sustain healthier colonies.
The four-year study is funded by a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. It will be conducted by co-principal investigators Juliana Rangel, Ph.D., and Spencer Behmer, Ph.D., both professors in the Department of Entomology within the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The project is exploring honeybee nutrition across multiple landscapes and will provide a multidimensional analysis of pollen as a nutritional resource. It will also examine how bees regulate the collection and consumption of pollen.
Read more at: Texas A&M University
An AgriLife Research project is investigating how honeybee diets and forage availability contribute to overall colony health. (Photo Credit: Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Michael Miller)