New pollen-free nutritious diet could save honeybee colonies, say scientists

Scientists have created a new food source that can sustain honeybee colonies indefinitely without natural pollen. Like food made for pets and farm animals, the bars contain essential nutrients the bees need to survive. We sit down with the researcher to learn about the nutrition challenges honeybees face and how to ensure their long-term survival. 

The food bar contains the “six major pollen and honeybee sterols (24-methylenecholesterol, isofucosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol, and cholesterol) at total concentrations and compositions in the range of nutritionally adequate pollen,” reveals the paper. 

The study seeks to address the inadequate nutrition sources in the environment for honeybees, which are negatively impacted by changes in land use, urban expansion, and extreme weather. The insects, as pollinators, play a central role in global ecosystems and support agriculture.

“Until this study, honeybees were the only livestock that could not be maintained on a man-made feed,” Dr. Patrick Pilkington, CEO of APIX Biosciences US, tells Nutrition Insight.

“The reported scientific work shows in commercial field conditions that providing nutritionally stressed colonies with our pollen-replacing feed results in a major measurable step change in colony health compared to current best practices. Our product has the potential to change the way honeybees are managed.”

The study found that a lack of micronutrient isofucosterol causes significant reductions in brood production and neuromuscular dysfunction. This is the third most abundant sterol in honeybees. 

Monoculture farming starves bees of diverse pollen, but the lab-made feed could save colonies by mimicking perfect nutrition (Image credit: APIX Biosciences).“Omitting 24-methylene cholesterol does not significantly affect brood production and, surprisingly, bees remain viable without it,” it reads.

Threats to honeybees

Co-author of the paper, Brandon Hopkins, professor of pollinator ecology at Washington State University, US, tells us about the harms of monoculture agriculture that negatively impact bees, while land use, urban expansion, and weather patterns affect pollen production and colony health.

“Monoculture large-scale agriculture is typified by large fields wherein only one crop is planted and the crop produces only one kind of pollen in a short flowering window (all crop plants flower simultaneously),” he explains. “In such an environment, weeds (wildflowers) are removed by herbicides.” 

“Regular use of insecticides and fungicides on the crop affects the bees, killing them, shortening their lifespan, and interfering with their behavior — all of which negatively affect the colony.”

In the US, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) promotes the conversion of erodible land to natural habitats by growing plants that benefit wildlife, including bees, by paying land owners. However, Hopkins infers that reduced CRP land — “millions in acres” — means less habitats for bees to forage.

Another stress for honeybees is urban expansion, bringing a lack of flowering or green spaces.

“Changing weather patterns result in periods of drought, rain, heat, or cold. This affects the presence of flowers, stops the bees from flying out and collecting food, or creates wildfires and such,” Hopkins adds.

Ensuring diet variety 

Hopkins underscores that honeybees need variety in their diet to survive. 

“Bees need diverse pollen because no single pollen source has the correct chemical or nutrient composition to fulfill all their needs. If one can put all the required nutrients in a single feed composition, the animals/humans do not experience negative effects. We feed our cats and dogs lifelong on pet food without negative effects. Health issues arise only if the feed is nutritionally incomplete.”

“A complete feed is a tool for the beekeepers — they work very hard to assure the health of their honeybees. A complete diet like that developed and tested in this research publication may reshape the industry in several ways. It makes it possible to keep the bees closer to agricultural areas before and after the pollination event, rather than needing to travel long distances to find areas of high flower diversity where the honeybees can be put to pasture (but where wild bees and other insects live as well).”

Scientists created a pollen-free bee diet with all essential sterols, allowing honeybees to thrive without natural pollen—a first for bee livestock.Colony health can be sustained during stressful pollination events and in areas with dense bee populations between these events, Hopkins continues. “This approach simplifies the process of maintaining healthy colonies. Ultimately, both the beekeeper and the government regulator agree on one key point: the beekeeper aims for a thriving livestock.”

Symbiotic relationship 

The study, published in the Royal Society, reveals that bees require quality assurance, control, and trials to ensure long-term colony health.

“This involves a lot of research on the quality, source, and purity of the ingredients that make up the diet; quality assurance and control; and many trials in the lab and field measuring colony health and survival. Some agencies oversee the livestock feed industry and monitor and set rules for what ingredients can and cannot be present in animal feed,” Hopkins says.

“Today, honeybees are already nearly fully dependent on human intervention for survival. For thousands of years, the honeybee has been domesticated. However, diverse pollen is now becoming a more limiting resource. We, therefore, have no alternative but to supplement the honeybees. There is no downside: the more nutritionally complete that diet is, the more bees get produced and the healthier the bees are.”