UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will enable a team of researchers — led by Penn State entomologists — to assess foraging patterns of honey bees on organic farms, with an eye toward creating opportunities for beekeepers to produce certified-organic apiary products.
The funding was awarded through the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
In addition to being the most important agricultural pollinators, honey bees generate commercial products, such as honey and wax, that contribute more than $300 million to the U.S. economy annually. But, according to the researchers, beekeepers in the continental United States typically are unable to produce organic apiary products — despite their higher market value — because of difficulties in meeting organic-certification requirements.
“Specifically, beekeepers can’t meet the pesticide-free zoning requirements, which call for maintaining at least a 3 kilometer, pesticide-free radius around their colonies,” said project leader Margarita López-Uribe, Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor and associate professor of entomology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
“The 3-kilometer zone was established based on maximum foraging distance of honey bees,” she explained. “But our preliminary data and published research indicate that honey bee foraging is context-dependent, and their range can be significantly smaller in smaller colonies and in those surrounded by high-quality landscapes.”
The research team will track honey bee movements by employing automated tag readers and harmonic radar and will decode the bees’ waggle dances, which honey bees perform to communicate the location of food sources to hive mates. These data, the researchers noted, will help them characterize foraging patterns in colonies of different population sizes and located in landscapes with varying characteristics and quality of floral resources.