Food manipulation in honeybees induces physiological responses at the individual and colony level

Abstract

International audienceApis mellifera experiences large population declines in the USA and honeybee health is affected by many, potentially interacting factors that need to be addressed through a variety of approaches. In this context, we evaluated the impact of nutritional manipulations on worker physiology and colony demography. Specifically, we manipulated protein availability by feeding colonies on royal jelly, low-quality pollen, or regular pollen stores. After acclimation to these treatments, experimental cohorts of workers were introduced and later assessed with regards to life expectancy, protein content, and intestinal stem cell proliferation. We also monitored their hives for the amount of workers, brood, and pollen trapped in front of the hive entrances. Workers that fed on royal jelly showed a reduced rate of intestinal stem cell proliferation at nurse bee age. Total soluble protein content of individuals and adult worker lifespan were not systematically affected. However, we cannot exclude an auxiliary role of poor nutrition to declining bee health by weakening the intestinal epithelium. In contrast to the weak experimental effects on individual variables, the brood production differed drastically among the experimental hives. Although not yet replicated, this observation might indicate that hive demographic plasticity rather than individual plasticity is important for acclimation to different food regimes

Honey bee colonies provided with natural forage have lower pathogen loads and higher overwinter survival than those fed protein supplements

“…Though we are not certain that the bees fed exclusively on the PS, it probably was the primary protein source. Others have reported no effects of protein stress on soluble protein titers but stressed colonies produced less brood (Schmickl and Crailsheim 2001;Rueppell et al 2008;Willard et al 2011). In our study, brood production did not differ between colonies fed PS or pollen possibly because it occurred in the winter when brood rearing rates are low.…”

Influence of pollen deprivation on the fore wing asymmetry of honeybee workers and drones

“…Pollen limitation can also affect bees' susceptibility to Nosema spp. (Wang and Moeller 1970;Huang 2012;Di Pasquale et al 2013), Varroa destructor (Huang 2012;van Dooremalen et al 2013) and other diseases (Brodschneider and Crailsheim 2010;de Grandi-Hoffman et al 2010;Willard et al 2011;Foley et al 2012). In extreme cases, pollen deprivation can lead to the cannibalism of young larvae in order to feed older larvae (Schmickl and Crailsheim 2004) or cessation of brood rearing completely, to avoid producing highly impaired individuals (Imdorf et al 1998;Kunert and Crailsheim 1988;Crailsheim and Hrassnigg 1998;Boes 2010).…”

Quality of honeybee drones reared in colonies with limited and unlimited access to pollen

“…The consequences of a deficiency of pollen in a bee nest have been studied in terms of worker behavior (Allen and Jeffree 1956;Fewell and Winston 1992;Eckert et al 1994;Schmickl et al 2003;Schmickl and Crailsheim 2004;Willard et al 2011), worker quality (Crailsheim 1990;Hrassnigg and Crailsheim 1998;Imdorf et al 1998;Mattilda and Otis 2006) and population health (Brodschneider and Crailsheim 2010;Foley et al 2012;Huang 2012; Di Pasquale et al 2013). Although drones have a substantial influence on the queen's reproductive value and the time of her use (Winston 1987;Chuda-Mickiewicz and Prabucki 1993;Boes 2010), much less attention has been paid to drones and their reproductive value under protein food deprivation in the nest (Stürup et al 2013).…”