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Non-native species have the potential to detrimentally affect native species through resource competition, disease transmission, and other forms of antagonism. The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is one such species that has been widely introduced beyond its native range for hundreds of years. There are strong concerns in the United States, and other countries, about the strain that high-density, managed honey bee populations could pose to already imperiled wild bee communities. While there is some experimental evidence of honey bees competing with wild bees for resources, few studies have connected landscape-scale honey bee apiary density with down-stream consequences for wild bee communities. Here, using a dataset from Maryland, US and joint species distribution models, we provide the largest scale, most phylogenetically resolved assessment of non-native honey bee density effects on wild bee abundance to date. As beekeeping in Maryland primarily consists of urban beekeeping, we also assessed the relative impact of developed land on wild bee communities. Six of the 33 wild bee genera we assessed showed a high probability (> 90 %) of a negative association with apiary density and/or developed land. These bees were primarily late-season, specialist genera (several long-horned genera represented) or small, ground nesting, season-long foragers (including several sweat bee genera). Conversely, developed land was associated with an increase in relative abundance for some genera including invasive Anthidium and other urban garden-associated genera. We discuss several avenues to ameliorate potentially detrimental effects of beekeeping and urbanization on the most imperiled wild bee groups. We additionally offer methodological insights based on sampling efficiency of different methods (hand netting, pan trapping, vane trapping), highlighting large variation in effect sizes across genera. The magnitude of sampling effect was very high, relative to the observed ecological effects, demonstrating the importance of integrated sampling, particularly for multi-species or community level assessments.

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Royal jelly is a substance secreted by the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of nurse honey bees, serving as crucial nutritional source for young larvae, queen honey bees, and also valuable product for humans. In this study, the effect of the feed supplements on the nutritional composition and qualities of royal jelly was investigated. Two types of royal jelly samples were acquired: one from honey bees fed with sugar syrup as a feed supplement and the other from honey bees fed with honey. The production, harvesting, and storage of all royal jelly samples followed standard procedures. Parameters for quality assessment and nutritional value, including stable carbon isotopic ratio, moisture content, 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA) level, carbohydrate composition, amino acid composition, and mineral contents, were analyzed. The results revealed that despite variability in moisture content and carbohydrate composition, fructose was lower (2.6 and 4.1 g/100 g as is for sugar-fed and honey-fed royal jelly, respectively) and sucrose was higher (7.5 and 2.7 g/100 g as is for sugar-fed and honey-fed royal jelly, respectively) in the sugar-fed group. The stable isotope ratio (-16.4608‱ for sugar-fed and -21.9304‱ for honey-fed royal jelly) clearly distinguished the two groups. 10-HDA, amino acid composition, and total protein levels were not significantly different. Certain minerals, such as potassium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus were higher in the honey-fed group. Hierarchical analysis based on moisture, sugar composition, 10-HDA, and stable carbon isotopes categorized the samples into two distinct groups. This study demonstrated that the feed source could affect the nutritional quality of royal jelly.

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Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are industrial chemicals that have potential adverse effects in the environment and on human health. This study investigated CPs in apiary environment, honeybees, and bee products from two rural areas of Beijing, China. The median concentrations of short-chain CPs (SCCPs) and medium-chain CPs (MCCPs) were 22 and 1.6 ng/m3 in the ambient air, 1350 and 708 ng/g dry mass (dw) in bees, 1050 and 427 ng/g dw in flowers, 37 and 54 ng/g in honey, 78 and 53 ng/g dw in bee pollen, 36 and 30 ng/g dw in soil, and 293 and 319 ng/g dw in bee wax. C10Cl6-7 and C14Cl7-8 dominated SCCPs and MCCPs in these samples, respectively. The concentrations and distributions of CPs in samples from apiaries located in the two regions varied. Long-range transportation of air masses was identified as an important source of CPs in apiaries. A close relationship between CPs in bees and the apiary environment indicated that bees could act as bioindicators for CP contamination in the environment. A human health risk assessment found that there were low risks for adults and children exposed to CPs through consumption of honey and pollen from the studied regions.

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Susceptibility of individuals and groups to toxicants depends on complex interactions involving the host, environment, and other exposures. Apiary diagnostic investigation and honey bee health are truly population medicine: the colony is the patient. Here we provide basic information on the application of toxicology to the testing of domestic honey bees, and, in light of recent research, expand on some of the challenges of interpreting analytical chemistry findings as they pertain to hive health. The hive is an efficiently organized system of wax cells used to store brood, honey, and bee bread, and is protected by the bee-procured antimicrobial compound propolis. Toxicants can affect individual workers outside or inside the hive, with disease processes that range from acute to chronic and subclinical to lethal. Toxicants can impact brood and contaminate honey, bee bread, and structural wax. We provide an overview of important natural and synthetic toxicants to which honey bees are exposed; behavioral, husbandry, and external environmental factors influencing exposure; short- and long-term impacts of toxicant exposure on individual bee and colony health; and the convergent impacts of stress, nutrition, infectious disease, and toxicant exposures on colony health. Current and potential future toxicology testing options are included. Common contaminants in apiary products consumed or used by humans (honey, wax, pollen), their sources, and the potential need for product testing are also noted.

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Beehives constitute a source of environmental contaminants because forager bees explore their habitat and unintentionally accumulate them while foraging for food. Therefore, this review paper investigated different bee species and products from 55 countries to identify how they can help environmental biomonitoring by giving an overview of the past 11 years. Thereby is presented in this study the beehive's use as a bioindicator for metals, analytical techniques, data analysis, environmental compartments, common inorganic contaminants, reference thresholds for some metal concentrations in bees and honey, and other factors over more than 100 references. Most authors agree that the honey bee is a suitable bioindicator to assess toxic metal contamination, and among its products, propolis, pollen, and beeswax are more suited than honey. However, in some situations, when comparing bees with their products, bees are more efficient as potential environmental biomonitors. Some factors such as the colony location, floral sources, regional effects, and activities surrounding the apiary influence the bees, and the composition of their products is reflected by alterations in their chemical profile, making them suitable bioindicators.

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Black queen cell virus (BQCV) is a ubiquitous honeybee virus and a significant pathogen to queen bee (Apis mellifera) larvae. However, many aspects of the virus remain poorly understood, including the transmission dynamics. In this study, we used next-generation sequencing to identify BQCV in Aedes vexans (n = 4,000) collected in 2019 and 2020 from Manitoba, Canada. We assembled de novo the nearly complete (>96%) genome sequence of the virus, which is the first available from North America and the first report of BQCV being harbored by mosquitoes. Phylogenetic tree reconstructions indicated that the genome had 95.5% sequence similarity to a BQCV isolate from Sweden. Sequences of a potential vector (Varroa destructor) and a microsporidian associated with BQCV (Nosema apis) were not identified in the mosquito samples, however, we did detect sequences of plant origin. We, therefore, hypothesize that the virus was indirectly acquired by mosquitoes foraging at the same nectar sources as honeybees.

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Since bee traffic is a contributing factor to hive health and electromagnetic radiation has a growing presence in the urban milieu, we investigate ambient electromagnetic radiation as a predictor of bee traffic in the hive's vicinity in an urban environment. To that end, we built two multi-sensor stations and deployed them for four and a half months at a private apiary in Logan, UT, USA. to record ambient weather and electromagnetic radiation. We placed two non-invasive video loggers on two hives at the apiary to extract omnidirectional bee motion counts from videos. The time-aligned datasets were used to evaluate 200 linear and 3,703,200 non-linear (random forest and support vector machine) regressors to predict bee motion counts from time, weather, and electromagnetic radiation. In all regressors, electromagnetic radiation was as good a predictor of traffic as weather. Both weather and electromagnetic radiation were better predictors than time. On the 13,412 time-aligned weather, electromagnetic radiation, and bee traffic records, random forest regressors had higher maximum R2 scores and resulted in more energy efficient parameterized grid searches. Both types of regressors were numerically stable.

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For beekeeping to be sustainable, the management of colonies for the production of bee products must be economically viable without endangering the lives of bees, and must include acceptable practices such as the treatment of hives with appropriate products. Occasionally, the use of acaricides to treat the hives against varroosis is uncontrolled and can accumulate in the hives, putting the colonies at risk. In this work, a screening of seven acaricides was carried out in different apiaries in Andalusia (Spain). Their distribution in beeswax, brood, honey, and bees from colonies in different surroundings was evaluated at different times. It was found that beeswax was highly contaminated but honey, brood and bees had acceptable levels, below their respective MRL or LD50, after a certain period following varrocide treatments. Acaricides banned for their use against Varroa, such as chlorfenvinphos, cypermethrin and especially acrinathrin, were found in the hives analysed.

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BACKGROUND: Honeybees use plant material to manufacture their own food. These insect pollinators visit flowers repeatedly to collect nectar and pollen, which are shared with other hive bees to produce honey and beebread. While producing these products, beehives accumulate a considerable number of microbes, including bacteria that derive from plants and different parts of the honeybees' body. Whether bacteria form similar communities amongst beehives, even if located in close proximity, is an ecologically important question that has been addressed in this study. Specific ecological factors such as the surrounding environment and the beekeeping methods used can shape the microbiome of the beehive as a whole, and eventually influence the health of the honeybees and their ecosystem. RESULTS: We conducted 16S rRNA meta-taxonomic analysis on honey and beebread samples that were collected from 15 apiaries in the southeast of England to quantify the bacteria associated with different beehives. We observed that honeybee products carry a significant variety of bacterial groups that comprise bee commensals, environmental bacteria and symbionts and pathogens of plants and animals. Remarkably, this bacterial diversity differs not only amongst apiaries, but also between the beehives of the same apiary. In particular, the levels of the bee commensals varied significantly, and their fluctuations correlated with the presence of different environmental bacteria and various apiculture practices. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that every hive possesses their own distinct microbiome and that this very defined fingerprint is affected by multiple factors such as the nectar and pollen gathered from local plants, the management of the apiaries and the bacterial communities living around the beehives. Based on our findings, we suggest that the microbiome of beehives could be used as a valuable biosensor informing of the health of the honeybees and their surrounding environment.

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The summary data presented in this paper describes beekeeping practices, use of natural resources and economic attributes associated with honey bee products, native flora and environmental challenges relating to apiary sites. Despite being a well-established industry, information and data about productivity and the behavior of beekeepers, particularly those who migrate across the state of Western Australia, is lacking. We developed an online quantitative survey, the Natural Resources for Beekeepers Questionnaire (Western Australia) 2020-21, the first comprehensive, spatially referenced survey of beekeepers in Western Australia since 1990. It is also the first survey of small-scale amateur beekeepers that estimates their supply to the local honey market. For commercial beekeepers, a focus of the survey was to estimate the value of apiary sites and the productivity of migratory beekeepers. The data gives measures related to the production system and profitability of the Western Australian beekeeping industry, focusing on the 2019-2020 season and historical production. It includes tables describing memberships and certification; years beekeeping; hive types; apiary site availability, productivity, use, exchange and value; logistics; pollination services; honey bee products, sales and distribution; yields by season and site; targeted flora and commercial significance; recovery after bush fire and logging; labour details; operating costs; and asset values. The dataset in this paper is a subset of the survey results as aggregated summary statistics, categorized by type of beekeeper (Backyard, Hobbyist-Amateur and Commercial) and across eight regions (IBRA7 - Interim Biogeographic Regionalization for Australia). The online survey questionnaire is provided with this paper. Access to the survey offers the opportunity for reproducibility of a complex online questionnaire in the future and/or for other regions. This dataset will allow a more comprehensive assessment of the implications of natural resource management decisions in the future and the potential for strategic development of the beekeeping industry.

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Global efforts to assess honey bee health show viruses are major stressors that undermine colony performance. Identifying factors that affect virus incidence, such as management practices and landscape context, could aid in slowing virus transmission. Here we surveyed viruses in honey bees from 86 sites in the Pacific Northwest, USA, and tested effects of regional bee density, movement associated with commercial pollination, julian date, and hive management on virus prevalence. We also explored patterns of virus co-occurrence and spatial autocorrelation to identify whether local transmission was a primary driver of pathogen distribution. Our surveys found widespread prevalence of Deformed wing virus (DWV), Sacbrood virus (SBV), and Black queen cell virus (BQCV). BQCV and SBV were most prolific in commercial apiaries, while Chronic bee paralysis virus (CPBV) was more common in hobbyist apiaries than commercial apiaries. DWV was most common in urban landscapes and was best predicted by mite prevalence and julian date, while the incidence of both SBV and BQCV were best predicted by regional apiary density. We did not find evidence of additional spatial autocorrelation for any viruses, although high co-occurrence suggests parallel transmission patterns. Our results support the importance of mite management in slowing virus spread and suggest that greater bee density increases transmission. Our study provides support that viruses are widespread in honey bees and connects known mechanisms of virus transmission to the distribution of pathogens observed across the Pacific Northwest.

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Honey is a natural substance produced by honeybees from the nectar or secretion of flowering plants. Along with the botanical and geographical origin, several environmental factors also play a major role in determining the characteristics of honey. The aim of this study is to determine and compare the elemental concentration of various macro and trace elements in apiary and wild honeys collected from different parts of Indian Sundarbans. The elemental analysis was performed in inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy preceded by microwave digestion method. The concentrations of 19 elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Se and Zn) were investigated from thirteen locations of Indian Sundarbans. This comparative study shows in wild honey samples, the concentration of K was highest followed by Ca, Mg and Na and Zn was lowest among all. In contrast, in apiary honey samples, Ca had maximum concentration followed by K, Mg and Na and Ag had minimum among all. The elemental concentration in honey from apiary was either equal or higher than their wild counterpart. The results of the factor analysis of PCA algorithm for wild and apiary honey samples were highly variable which implies that the elements are not coming from the same origin. The concentration of element was found to be highly variable across sites and across sources of honey samples.

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Honey bee (Apis mellifera) health and hive transport are regulated by local apiary programs composed of apiary inspectors. Inspectors monitor and ensure the health of honey bees through field visits to apiaries where they inspect, identify, diagnose, and provide recommendations for the treatment of honey bee health issues. Laws and regulations pertaining to beekeeping and honey bee health are present in most states, territories, and provinces. Veterinarians are encouraged to establish a relationship with their local apiary inspector to further support beekeepers and the management of healthy honey bee colonies.

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Finding a proper location for a bee apiary is a crucial task for beekeepers and especially for travelling beekeepers. Normally beekeepers choose an appropriate apiary location based on their previous experience and sometimes the location may not be optimal for the bee colonies. This can be explained by different flowering periods, variation of resources at the known fields, as well as other factors. In addition it is very challenging to evaluate how many bee colonies should be placed in one geographical location for an optimal nectar foraging process. This research presents a model for finding the number of honey bee colonies needed for the optimal foraging process in the specific location, taking into account several assumptions. Authors propose to take into account potential field productivity, possible chemical contamination, surroundings of the apiary. To run the model, several steps have to be completed, starting from the selection of area of interest, conversion to polygons for further calculations, defining the roads in the selected area. The outcome of the model number of colonies that should be placed is presented to the user. The Python language was used for the model development. The model can be extended to use additional factors and values to increase the precision of the evaluation. In addition, input from users (farmers, agricultural specialists, etc.) about external factors that can affect the number of bee colonies in the apiary can be taken into account. This work is conducted within the Horizon 2020 FET project HIVEOPOLIS (Nr.824069).

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We conducted a survey on honey bee (Apis mellifera) queen management. Data were collected every year from 1980 to 2018. In total, 2964 questionnaires were collected from all over Poland. We examined the trends by decade timeslot, apiary size, and geographical location. Regardless of the decade and the size of the apiary, on average, above 90% of Polish beekeepers replace old queens with new ones in their colonies. In general, during the observed period, beekeepers replaced almost 52% of their queens, 21% of which were purchased. In the last decade, there was an upward trend in the percentage of beekeepers replacing queens throughout the country. The involvement of purchased queens in colony management is associated with the size of the apiary, and it significantly grows with the number of colonies in the apiary. The percentage of purchased queens went up in all the voivodeships over time. Research and education in this area are needed in order to track the trends and further improve Polish beekeepers' practices.

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Deformed wing virus (DWV) is the most abundant viral pathogen of honey bees and has been associated with large-scale colony losses. DWV and other bee-associated RNA viruses are generalists capable of infecting diverse hosts. Here, we used RNAseq analysis to test the hypothesis that due to the frequency of interactions, a range of apiary pest species would become infected with DWV and/or other honey bee-associated viruses. We confirmed that DWV-A was the most prevalent virus in the apiary, with genetically similar sequences circulating in the apiary pests, suggesting frequent inter-species transmission. In addition, different proportions of the three DWV master variants as indicated by BLAST analysis and genome coverage plots revealed interesting DWV-species groupings. We also observed that new genomic recombinants were formed by the DWV master variants, which are likely adapted to replicate in different host species. Species groupings also applied when considering other viruses, many of which were widespread in the apiaries. In social wasps, samples were grouped further by site, which potentially also influenced viral load. Thus, the apiary invertebrate community has the potential to act as reservoirs of honey bee-associated viruses, highlighting the importance of considering the wider community in the apiary when considering honey bee health.

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Varroa destructor is the major cause of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses. Mite control is limited to several miticides. The overuse of tau-fluvalinate has resulted in resistance via a knockdown resistance (kdr) mutation in the sodium channel gene NaVChs (L925V/I/M). In this study, we used the discriminating concentration of tau-fluvalinate (0.25 µg/mL) to detect the resistance of mites in a bioassay. Further, we verified the presence of the kdr mutation in mites from the bioassay via PCR amplification of a fragment of the voltage-gated sodium channel gene (NaVCh), restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), and densitometry analyses in pools of surviving or dead mites. Resistance values corresponding to the densitometry of the resistant allele were related to mite survival. In the vial test, the survival of the control group was significantly higher (70.4%) than that of the tau-fluvalinate-treated group (34.3%). Mite survival in the vial test was significantly correlated with the mean proportion of resistance values. Individuals that died after tau-fluvalinate application exhibited an average resistance value of 0.0783, whereas individuals that survived exhibited an average resistance of 0.400. The concentration of tau-fluvalinate in the vials was checked using high performance liquid chromatography under different temperatures and exposure times, and indicates that the stability of tau-fluvalinate stored in the refrigerator (4 ± 1 °C) is at least 14 days. PCR-RFLP of the NaVCh gene fragment verified that the vial test is a suitable, rapid, and cost-effective method for the identification of tau-fluvalinate resistance based on kdr mutation in V. destructor in apiaries.

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Human reliance on insect pollination services continues to increase even as pollinator populations exhibit global declines. Increased commodity crop prices and federal subsidies for biofuel crops, such as corn and soybeans, have contributed to rapid land-use change in the US Northern Great Plains (NGP), changes that may jeopardize habitat for honey bees in a part of the country that supports >40% of the US colony stock. We investigated changes in biofuel crop production and grassland land covers surrounding ∼18,000 registered commercial apiaries in North and South Dakota from 2006 to 2014. We then developed habitat selection models to identify remotely sensed land-cover and land-use features that influence apiary site selection by Dakota beekeepers. Our study demonstrates a continual increase in biofuel crops, totaling 1.2 Mha, around registered apiary locations in North and South Dakota. Such crops were avoided by commercial beekeepers when selecting apiary sites in this region. Furthermore, our analysis reveals how grasslands that beekeepers target when selecting commercial apiary locations are becoming less common in eastern North and South Dakota, changes that may have lasting impact on pollinator conservation efforts. Our study highlights how land-use change in the NGP is altering the landscape in ways that are seemingly less conducive to beekeeping. Our models can be used to guide future conservation efforts highlighted in the US national pollinator health strategy by identifying areas that support high densities of commercial apiaries and that have exhibited significant land-use changes.

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The trace-elements (TE) contents of honey, royal-jelly and beeswax from a historical Zn-Pb mining district have been investigated to assess potential contamination. In spite of high levels of heavy metal (As, Cd, Tl, Pb) in wastes left after mining stopped, apiary products appear to be relatively free of TE contamination. For honey, the following average levels (±standard error) were observed: Zn 571±440µgkg(-1), Pb 26±20µgkg(-1), Tl 13±10µgkg(-1), Cd 7±6µgkg(-1) and As 3±4µg.kg(-1). These results bring additional data to the potential impact of brownfields left after mining on apiary products. They also bring new data to assess potential risks linked with honey consumption and discuss legal TE contents in honey and other food products from apiaries.

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