Importance of Nutrition for Honey Bee Health

Adequate nutrition supports the development of honey bee colonies’ health. The quality and the nutritious components of the food help bees to be healthy.  Honey bee colonies health can not be measured by the fact that they are purified from diseases. Colonial health status is also measured by the presence of well-nurtured individuals who can nurture new offspring in a healthy manner, and their ability to resist stress sources such as periodic starvation, infections, insecticides and parasites. This review will concentrate on the studies that focused on nutrients honey bees  and their effects on honey bee health.

___

  • [1] HAYDAK M (1970) Honey bee nutrition, Annu.Rev. Entomol.,15:43-456.
  • [2] GRAHAM, J (ed.) (1992) The Hive and the Honey Bee (Revised Edition), Dadant&Sons.
  • [3] MAYNARD SMITH, J; SZATHMARY, L (1995) The Major Transitions in Evolution, Freeman.
  • [4] PAGE, R E; PENG, C Y (1995) Aging and development in social insects with emphasis on the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. Exp. Gerontol. 36, 695–711.
  • [5] BARKER S A; FOSTER A B; LAMB D C; (1959) Identification of 10-Hydroxy-Δ2-decenoic Acid in Royal Jelly, Nature, Volume 183, Issue 4666, pp. 996-997.
  • [6] KAMAKURA M (2011) Royalactin induces queen differentiation in honeybees, Nature 473, 478-483.
  • [7] BUTTSTEDT, A (2016) Royalactin is not a royal making of a queen Nature Vol 537, Pages: E10–E12, 22.
  • [8] HANSER, G; REMBOLD H (1964) Analytische und histologische Untersuchungen der Kopf- und Thoraxdrüsen bei der Honigbiene Apis mellifera. ZNaturforsch 19B, 938-943.
  • [9] CRAILSHEIM, K; SCHNEIDER, L H W; HRASSNIGG, N; BÜHLMANN, G; BROSCH, U; GMEINBAUER, R; SCHÖFFMANN, B; (1992) Pollen consumption and utilization in worker honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica): dependence on individual age and function, J. Insect Physiol. 38, 409–419.
  • [10] HRASSNIGG, N; CRAILSHEIM, K; (2005) Differences in drone and worker physiology in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.), Apidologie 36, 255–277.
  • [11] GILLIAM, M (1979) Microbiology of pollen and bee bread: the genus Bacillus. Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 10 (3), pp.269-274.
  • [12] HIGES, M; BOTIAS, C; MARTIN-HERNANDEZ, R; MEANA, A (2010) Negative effects of Nosema infection in honey production and vitality of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in Spain. Eurbee, 4th European Conference of Apidilogy (Edited by Meral Kence), 7-9 September 2010, Ankara, Turkey.
  • [13] PORRINI, M P; SARLO, E G; MEDICI, S K; GARRIDO P M; PORINO D P; DAMIANI N; EGUARAS, M J (2011) Nosema ceranae development in Apis mellifera: influence of diet and infective inoculum, Journal of Apicultural Research, 50(1): 35-41.
  • [14] BASUALDO, M; BARRAGAN, S; ANTUNEZ, K; (2014) Bee bread increases honeybee haemolymph protein and promote better survival despite of causing higher Nosema ceranae abundance in honeybees, Vol.6(4), 36-400.
  • [15] RINDERER, T E; ELLIOT, K D; (1977) Worker honey bee response to infection with Nosema apis: influence of dietJ. Econ. Entomol., 70, pp. 431-433.
  • [16] ZHENG, H Q; LIN, Z G; HUANG, S K; SOHR, A; CHEN, Y P; (2014) Spore loads may not be used alone as a direct indicator of the severity of Nosema ceranae infection in honey bees Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera:Apidae)J. Econ. Entomol., 107 (6), pp. 2037-2044.
  • [17] MORITZ, B; CRAILSHEIM, K (1987) Physiology of protein digestion in the midgut of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.), J. Insect Physiol. 33, 923–931.
  • [18] DIMOU, M; THRASYYOULOU, A; (2009) Pollen analysis of honeybee rectum as a method to record the bee pollen flora of an area, Apidologie 40, 124–133.
  • [19] PASQUALE, G D; YVES LE CONTE M S; BELZUNCES L P (2013) Influence of Pollen Nutrition on Honey Bee Health: Do Pollen Quality and Diversity Matter? PLoS ONE 8(8): e72016.
  • [20] HRASSNIGG, N; BRODSCHNEIDER, R; FLEISCHMANN, P H; CRAILSHEIM, K (2005) Unlike nectar foragers, honeybee drones (Apis mellifera) are not able to utilize starch as fuel for flight, Apidologie 36, 547–557.
  • [21] WILLE, H; WILLE, M; KILCHENMANN, V.., IMDORF, A; (1987) Die Pollenernährung desüberwinternden und auswinternden Bienenvolkes. Forschungsanstalt für Milchwirtschaft, Mitteilungen der Sektion Bienen 2, 1-11.
  • [22] KELLER, I; FLURI, P; IMDORF, A; (2005) Pollen nutrition and colony development in honey bees: part 1, Bee World, 86:1, 3-10.
  • [23] HAYDAK, M; (1935) Brood rearing by honeybees confined to a pure carbohydrate diet. J Econ Entomol 28, 657-660.
  • [24] MYSER, W C; (1952) Ingestion of eggs by honey bee workers. Am Bee J 92, 67.
  • [25] NEWTON, D C; MICHL, D J (1974) Cannibalism as an indication of pollen insufficiency in honeybees: ingestion or recapping of manually exposed pupae. J Apic Res 13, 235-241.
  • [26] MANNING R; RUTKAY A; EATON L; DELL B. (2007) Lipid-enhanced pollen and lipid-reduced flour diets and their effect on the longevity of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.), Aust. J. Entomol. 46, 251–257.
  • [27] HERSCH, M I; CREWE, R M; HEPBURN H R; THOMPSON, P R; SAVAGE, N (1978) Sequential development of glycolytic competence in muscles of worker honeybees, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B 61, 427–431.
  • [28] SOMERVILLE, D C; NICOL, H I (2006) Crude protein and amino acid composition of honey bee-collected pollen pellets from south-east Australia and a note on laboratory disparity, Aust. J. Exp. Agr. 46, 141–149.
  • [29] STANDIFER, L N; MOELLER, F E; KAUFFELD, N M; HERBERT, E W; SHIMANUKI, H (1977) Supplemental feeding of honey bee colonies, USDA Agr. Inform. Bull. No. 413, 8 p.
  • [30] NICOLSON, S (2011) Bee Food: The Chemistry and Nutritional Value of Nectar, Pollen and Mixtures of the Two, African Zoology 46(2):197-204.
  • [31] CRANE, E (1990) "Honey from honeybees and other insects". Ethology Ecology & Evolution. 3 (sup1): 100–105.
  • [32] CRANE, E; WALKER, P; DAY, R (1984) Directory of important world honey sources. International Bee Research Association.
  • [33] BOGDANOV, S et al (2008) Honey for Nutrition and Health: A Review, Jour.of American Coll.of Nutrition, Vol.27(6),677-689.
  • [34] GHELDOF, N; WANG, X H; ENGESETH, N J (2002) Identification and quantification of antioxidant components of honeys from various floral sources. J Agric Food Chem 50:5870–7.
  • [35] AZEREDO, L da C; AZEREDO, M; De SOUZA, S R; DUTRA, V M L (2003) Protein contents and physicochemical properties in honey samples of Apis mellifera of different floral origins. Food Chem 80:249–54.
  • [36] SUAREZ, R K; LIGHTON, J R; JOOS, B; ROBERTS, S P; HARRISON, J F (1996) "Energy metabolism, enzymatic flux capacities, and metabolic flux rates in flying honeybees". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 93 (22): 12616–20.
  • [37] BINKLEY, D; (2014) "How bees make honey is complex process". The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • [38] CORBET, S A (2003) Nectar sugar content: estimating standing crop and secretion rate in the field. Apidologie 34: 1–10.
  • [39] Crailsheim, K; (2009) Nutrition and Health in Honey Bees, Apidologie 41, 278–294.
  • [40] LeBLANC, B W; EGGLESTON, G. et. al (2009) Formation of Hydroxymethylfurfural in Domestic High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), J. Agric. Food Chem., 57 (16), pp 7369–7376.
  • [41] CRAILSHEIM, K; KRAINER, S (2016) Effect of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) on mortality of artificially reared honey bee larvae (Apis mellifera carnica), Exotoxicology, Volume 25, Issue 2, pp 320–328.
  • [42] BARKER, R J; LEHNER, Y (1974) Acceptance and sustenance value of naturally occurring sugars fed to newly emerged adult workers of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.), J. Exp. Zool. 187, 277–285.
  • [43] RUIZ-MATUTE A I; (2010) J. Agric. Food Chem., 58 (12), pp 7317–7322.
  • [44] NEFF J L; SIMPSON B B (1990) The Roles Of Phenology and Reward Structure in the Pollination Biology of Wild Sunflower (Hellianthus Annuus L., Asteraceae)
  • [45] KUNERT, K; CRAILSHEIM, K (1988) Seasonal Changes in Carbohydrate, Lipid and Protein Content in Emerging Worker Honeybees and their Mortality, Journal of Apicultural Reasearch, J. Apic. Res. 27, 13–21.
  • [46] NICOLSON, S W; HUMAN, H; (2008) Bees get a head start on honey, production, Biology Letters, Vol.5 Issue3