[Pollinator] CSREES News: An Energy Shake for Honeybees

[Jennifer Tsang]

To view this impact story online, visit
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/impact/2008/sbir/09081_megabee.html.

 

Media Contact: Jennifer Martin, (202) 720-8188

 

An Energy Shake for Honeybees

 

By Stacy Kish

 

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been linked to the 40-60 percent decline
in America 's honeybee populations whose pollination is valued at $15
billion annually to U.S. agriculture. Researchers at SAFE R&D, LLC, are
trying a new approach to this problem - a bee smoothie - to improve honeybee
healthy by improving their diet.

 

With funding from USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and
Extension Service (CSREES), Dr. Gordon Wardell, president of SAFE R&D, LLC.,
and his research partner Fabiana Ahumada-Segura developed MegaBeeTM as a
nutritional supplement for honeybees that contains protein, lipids, balanced
amino acids and other nutrients that support healthy hive development.

 

The pair believed that a severely restricted diet, brought on by the policy
of commercial beekeepers to limit a hive's range to one type of crop, might
have led to nutritional deficiencies within honeybee populations.

 

An independent study completed in 2007 compared the effectiveness and
efficiency of MegaBee to conventional sugar syrup. The study found that
brood production rates in honeybees consuming the MegaBee supplement
tripled. In addition, colonies fed MegaBee retained 30 percent more adult
bees, more efficiently converted food to the brood, had greater adult bee
populations, and were better able to pollinate.

 

MegaBee mimics the natural texture and consistency of pollen and is readily
consumed by honeybees. The product is supplied to the beekeeper as a powder,
which can be fed to the bees in moist cakes that resemble cookie dough or as
a liquid that resembles a smoothie.

 

"It's a very nutritional diet for the bees," said Wade Fisher, a
third-generation commercial pollinator who recently began using the MegaBee
supplement in Florida and several New England states.

 

Climate change is forcing earlier than normal floral bloom in many plants,
including domesticated plants of agricultural significance. This change of
floral cycle significantly affects the bees. In addition, several important
agricultural crops, like almonds, naturally bloom in the middle of winter.
Colonies have to be stimulated to produce the number of bees necessary to do
an adequate job of pollinating these early season crops. 

 

"Supplemental food for our bees is not just recommended today, it's
mandatory," Wardell said.

 

MegaBee is produced and marketed by Yuma, Ariz.,-based Castle Dome
Solutions, LLC, in partnership with Hamilton, Ill.-based Dadant and Sons,
Inc., as a product for commercial and hobbyist beekeepers. Castle Dome
started manufacturing MegaBee in September 2007.

 

CSREES funded this research project through the Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) program. Through federal funding and leadership for
research, education and extension programs, CSREES focuses on investing in
science and solving critical issues impacting people's daily lives and the
nation's future. For more information, visit www.csrees.usda.gov
<http://www.csrees.usda.gov/> .

 

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This impact is a service of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education,
and Extension Service. News on other research can be found on the CSREES
newsroom at  <http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/impacts.html>
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/impacts.html.

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