A technical semi-field methodology to measure the effect of nutrition on honey bee brood rearing
A technical semi-field methodology to measure the effect of nutrition on honey bee brood rearing
A honey bee colony's well-being is its ability to nurture larvae into healthy adults. Understanding how nutrition supports brood rearing is crucial for developing diets that could aid against environmental threats. Nutritional research on whole-colony brood development has been historically challenging because of difficulties documenting the diet's impact on brood production over time. We describe a novel semi-field method to study the influence of nutrition on brood rearing using standardised small colonies formed de novo (ca. 1500 nurse-age bees and a queen) housed in adapted mating-nucs, placed inside an enclosure and limited to feeding on chemically defined diets. Complete assessments were conducted every 15 days, assisted by a bespoke device to photograph every frame to measure cell contents. A novel metric describes the number of bees generated per gram of diet consumed, measuring the impact of nutrition on brood rearing and overall colony size.
Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Animals, Beekeeping/methods, Bees/physiology, Diet, Female, Larva/growth & development, Honey bee nutrition, Mini-colony bioassay, Brood production, Protein supplementation, Colony health, Semi-field method
Gonçalves, Rui F.S.
02afe7b3-6469-4b9d-abda-d0c06d22c412
de Sousa, Raquel T.
421d4c57-0394-44d9-9a01-fe1b7d5c360f
Stabler, Daniel
b275ba93-2cd8-460a-b5dc-b527a268f351
Pinto, David M.S.
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Wright, Geraldine A.
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Shafir, Sharoni
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2 January 2026
Gonçalves, Rui F.S.
02afe7b3-6469-4b9d-abda-d0c06d22c412
de Sousa, Raquel T.
421d4c57-0394-44d9-9a01-fe1b7d5c360f
Stabler, Daniel
b275ba93-2cd8-460a-b5dc-b527a268f351
Pinto, David M.S.
75bcf9f5-e123-404b-a4ca-4258dcc1f5b3
Wright, Geraldine A.
f1dac0e1-1920-43ce-802a-c9056c817eb0
Shafir, Sharoni
7a0b1bc6-c6f6-4460-92b7-0ee8e9c94d1e
Gonçalves, Rui F.S., de Sousa, Raquel T., Stabler, Daniel, Pinto, David M.S., Wright, Geraldine A. and Shafir, Sharoni
(2026)
A technical semi-field methodology to measure the effect of nutrition on honey bee brood rearing.
The Journal of Experimental Biology, 229 (1), [jeb251151].
(doi:10.1242/jeb.251151).
Abstract
A honey bee colony's well-being is its ability to nurture larvae into healthy adults. Understanding how nutrition supports brood rearing is crucial for developing diets that could aid against environmental threats. Nutritional research on whole-colony brood development has been historically challenging because of difficulties documenting the diet's impact on brood production over time. We describe a novel semi-field method to study the influence of nutrition on brood rearing using standardised small colonies formed de novo (ca. 1500 nurse-age bees and a queen) housed in adapted mating-nucs, placed inside an enclosure and limited to feeding on chemically defined diets. Complete assessments were conducted every 15 days, assisted by a bespoke device to photograph every frame to measure cell contents. A novel metric describes the number of bees generated per gram of diet consumed, measuring the impact of nutrition on brood rearing and overall colony size.
Text
jeb251151
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 15 November 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 January 2026
Published date: 2 January 2026
Keywords:
Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Animals, Beekeeping/methods, Bees/physiology, Diet, Female, Larva/growth & development, Honey bee nutrition, Mini-colony bioassay, Brood production, Protein supplementation, Colony health, Semi-field method
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510970
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510970
ISSN: 0022-0949
PURE UUID: a3f607ad-4a58-4db8-8cbb-a5c6f4094bc6
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Date deposited: 28 Apr 2026 16:43
Last modified: 29 Apr 2026 02:07
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Contributors
Author:
Rui F.S. Gonçalves
Author:
Raquel T. de Sousa
Author:
Daniel Stabler
Author:
David M.S. Pinto
Author:
Geraldine A. Wright
Author:
Sharoni Shafir
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