In this work, the individual and combined antioxidant capacities of three polyphenolic extracts from the Chilean bee industry (multifloral bee pollen, Quillay honey, and Ulmo honey) were evaluated using a mixture design method. The polyphenolic content, flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity of the singular, binary, and ternary extract mixtures were determined. The results indicate that there is a correlation between the contents of phenols and total flavonoids and the radical scavenging capacity. When combining the extracts, both synergistic, additive and antagonistic effects were observed, depending on the assay method, which reflects the predominant mechanism through which antioxidation occurs. Synergy was found by combining extracts of Quillay and Ulmo honeys according to the FRAP test and for a combination of the extracts from multifloral bee pollen and Quillay honey according to the DPPH test. Since blend I₁–I₃ present high antioxidant capacity, it can be seen that the concentration of total polyphenols does not necessarily reflect the total antioxidant capacity of the mixtures. This exploratory methodology has proven to be useful to identify mixtures of honey and bee pollen extracts than can serve as antioxidant blends in the food industry and could be useful to design new functional food ingredients.

Decision making capability of a system is highly dependent upon the quality and quantity of training data. Majority of beehive monitoring systems developed for research purposes are designed to collect data through a small set of sensors, and from locations with little geographic diversity. This hinders the development of a dataset that can be used to effectively train machine learning models. In this work, we explain the design and development of a multi-sensory, remote data acquisition system for beehives (BeeDAS), with focus on low-power consumption and long-range communication. We address design challenges associated with such systems and highlight the critical issues that need consideration. The proposed system enables collection of data from beehives at remote locations and harsh environment. Results of field deployments elucidate the effectiveness of various sensors which measure temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, CO2, acoustics, vibrations and the weight of a hive in hostile environment. This work also uses random forest regression to evaluate the feature importance of different sensors, environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, rain, wind speed as well as the information related to seasons, towards estimating the daily hive weight change, on a dataset comprised of 1,250 days of sensor recordings. We also evaluate the protocol designed for communication using Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT). The issues related to power optimization, sleep intervals and data storage in remote monitoring are also discussed.

The AI-Driven Climate-Smart Beekeeping (AID-CSB) for Women project worked with beekeepers in Uzbekistan and Ethiopia to co-design and localize the “Beekeeper’s Companion”, a climate-smart information communication technology for development (ICT4D) app designed to support beekeepers’ hive management practices and improve honey production. AID-CSB’s ambition is to work towards applying advanced machine learning models on standardized biodiversity data by mitigating bias and maintaining spatial and temporal accuracy. To do this, the project leverages the participation of women beekeepers and national experts and incorporates their traditional and local knowledge into the algorithms that will push information to the beekeepers. Recognizing the need for an agricultural solution that does not require more time from women, the app was designed so that uploading data points requires a minimal time investment. For example, recording information on a hive inspection can be done with a simple swipe gesture in under five seconds. The following report frames AID-CSB activities within the environmental, human rights, and digital contexts in Uzbekistan and Ethiopia; details the preliminary findings of a series of user-tests and iterative participatory application designs of the app; and provides recommendations for bringing the app to scale in Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, and beyond. Lessons learned include the limits of localization, and the careful communication and numerous iterations required to mitigate issues of language, scalability, bias, access and cultural norms around women and technology.

The purpose of the research is to determine the effect of temperature conditions on the consumption of honey by a bee colony and to substantiate the parameters of the proposed electrical device for heating and ventilation of the hive. The productivity of a bee colony and the amount of honey consumption by bees depend on habitat conditions, including climatic factors. The ability to influence the temperature inside the hive by introducing electrified means of artificial microclimate maintenance has not been studied enough and is a promising area of research in beekeeping. According to experiments conducted in apiaries, the forced maintenance of the optimal microclimate in the bee nest made it possible to strengthen the bee colony by 37%, increase the brood and get seasonal savings of honey up to 16 kg per hive. Based on the studies to determine the feed consumption of a bee colony, depending on the outdoor temperature, an empirical equation was obtained, and a relationship was derived to calculate the required power of a device that maintains the microclimate in the hive. The results of numerical modeling of the required power of the device for maintaining the microclimate in a beehive of single- and double-wall execution are determined. At an outside temperature of +5 deg С, the calculated required power of the heating element for single- and double-walled hives will be 0.3 kW and 0.1 kW, respectively, and at +35 deg С, the corresponding loads on the ventilation device will be 0.25 and 0.08 kW, the total operating time of the heating element and the ventilation device is from 35 to 135 hours, depending on the design of the hive and the setting of the switching mode. The amount of electricity consumed by the device to maintain the microclimate in the beehive per season will be 11-14 kW*h, and the cost of electricity consumed will not exceed 2% of the annual effect of saving honey by reducing its consumption by bees. This does not take into account the additional effect of strengthening the colony and increasing the brood as a result of maintaining optimal temperature conditions. | Цель исследований – определение влияния температурных условий на расход меда пчелиной семьей и обоснование параметров предлагаемого электрического устройства обогрева и вентиляции улья. Продуктивность пчелиной семьи и количество потребления меда пчелами зависят от условий обитания, в том числе климатических факторов. Возможность повлиять на температуру внутри улья путем внедрения электрифицированных средств искусственного поддержания микроклимата изучена недостаточно и является перспективным направлением исследований в пчеловодстве. По данным опытов, проведенных на пасеках, принудительное поддержание оптимального микроклимата в пчелином гнезде позволило усилить пчелиную семью на 37%, повысить расплод и получить сезонную экономию меда до 16 кг на улей. На основе исследований по определению расхода корма пчелиной семьей в зависимости от температуры наружного воздуха было получено эмпирическое уравнение и выведена зависимость для расчета потребной мощности устройства, поддерживающего микроклимат в улье. Определены результаты численного моделирования потребной мощности устройства для поддержания микроклимата в пчелином улье одно- и двустенного исполнения. При наружной температуре +5 град. С расчетная требуемая мощность нагревательного элемента для одно- и двустенного ульев составит 0,3 кВт и 0,1 кВт соответственно, а при +35 град. С соответствующие нагрузки на вентилирующее устройство составят 0,25 и 0,08 кВт, суммарное время работы нагревательного элемента и устройства вентиляции – от 35 до 135 ч в зависимости от конструкции улья и настройки режима включения. Количество электроэнергии, затрачиваемой устройством для поддержания микроклимата в пчелином улье за сезон, составит 11-14 кВт*ч, а стоимость затраченной электроэнергии не превысит 2% годового эффекта от экономии меда за счет сокращения его потребления пчелами. При этом не учитывается дополнительный эффект от усиления семьи и повышения расплода в результате поддержании оптимальных температурных условий.

Introduction. Bee venom is a product of the poisonous glands of bees. It is of great value to the pharmaceutical industry for creating a whole series of drugs. The bee venom obtained along with honey can significantly increase the profitability of beekeeping. The venom productivity of bees largely depends on the physiological state of bee colonies, namely, on the number of flying bees, the age of the bees, the activity of the queen bee, etc. In addition, the venom productivity and biological activity of bees depends on the intensity of irritating signals, the location of the venom receivers in the hive, the design of the poison receivers, the time of poison col-lection, the season of work, and so on. The purpose of the article is to develop a technological process for col-lecting bee venom in apiaries and formulate the basic requirements for venom receivers using the “Muksh 7” bee venom collection system. In accordance with this, it is recommended to collect venom from May to the second half of September with a period of 20−25 days, four to five times a day, namely: from 5.00 to 8.00 and from 18.00 to 23.00. At the same time, up to 25−30 hives can be served during the day, and the entire apiary, if there are 150 hives, in 5−6 days. Considering that the poison is collected again after 20−25 days, one poison collection system can serve 2−3 apiaries. In the conclusion of the article, it is noted that with a poisoning productivity of 2−4 grams of poison from a hive per season, you can get up to 500 grams of bee venom from an apiary, which at a price of 1000 rubles per gram will provide additional profit of about 500,000 rubles from one apiary.

Ecuadorian beekeeping production undoubtedly faces a very large problem in health issues considering that the treatments established are based on natural products and sometimes chemicals, the former have not been scientifically studied and there are no regulated doses and the latter represent a risk for the operator and contamination for the products of the hive. Therefore, the objective of the research was to evaluate the effectiveness of Apiguard for the control of Varroa destructor in Apis mellifera hives in central Ecuador. The research was carried out in the Río Negro parish, located to the south-west, 30 km from the city of Baños de Agua Santa, Tungurahua. For the study, Apiguard was used in a total dose of 50 gr per hive, applied by means of a completely random design in 20 hives randomly distributed in the following treatments: T1, n = 5 (12.5 g); T2, n=5 (25g); T3, n = 5 (50 g), as well as a control group T0, n = 5, without any type of application, with 5 repetitions per treatment. Infestation rates were evaluated before and after each Apiguard application. | La producción apícola ecuatoriana enfrenta sin lugar a duda una problemática muy grande en temas sanitarios considerando que los tratamientos que se establecen son a base de productos naturales y en ocasiones químicos, los primeros no están estudiados científicamente y no existen dosis reguladas y los segundos representan un riesgo para el operario y una contaminación para los productos de la colmena. Por lo cual el objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar la eficacia del Apiguard para el control de Varroa destructor en colmenas de Apis mellifera de la zona central del Ecuador. La investigación se realizó en la parroquia de Río Negro, ubicada al sur-occidente a 30 Km de la ciudad de Baños de Agua Santa, Tungurahua. Para el estudio se utilizó el Apiguard en dosis total de 50 gr por colmena, aplicada mediante un diseño completamente al azar en 20 colmenas distribuidas aleatoriamente en los siguientes tratamientos: T1, n = 5 (12,5 g); T2, n = 5 (25 g); T3, n = 5 (50 g), así como un grupo control T0, n = 5, sin ningún tipo de aplicación, con 5 repeticiones por tratamiento. Las tasas de infestación se evaluaron antes y después de cada aplicación del Apiguard.

The gut microbiome plays an important role in bee health and disease. But it can be disrupted by pesticides and in-hive chemicals, putting honey bee health in danger. We used a controlled and fully crossed laboratory experimental design to test the effects of a 10-day period of chronic exposure to field-realistic sublethal concentrations of two nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist insecticides (nACHRs), namely flupyradifurone (FPF) and sulfoxaflor (Sulf), and a fungicide, azoxystrobin (Azoxy), individually and in combination, on the survival of individual honey bee workers and the composition of their gut microbiota (fungal and bacterial diversity). Metabarcoding was used to examine the gut microbiota on days 0, 5, and 10 of pesticide exposure to determine how the microbial response varies over time; to do so, the fungal ITS2 fragment and the V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA were targeted. We found that FPF has a negative impact on honey bee survival, but interactive (additive or synergistic) effects between either insecticide and the fungicide on honey bee survival were not statistically significant. Pesticide treatments significantly impacted the microbial community composition. The fungicide Azoxy substantially reduced the Shannon diversity of fungi after chronic exposure for 10 days. The relative abundance of the top 10 genera of the bee gut microbiota was also differentially affected by the fungicide, insecticides, and fungicide-insecticide combinations. Gut microbiota dysbiosis was associated with an increase in the relative abundance of opportunistic pathogens such as Serratia spp. (e.g. S. marcescens), which can have devastating consequences for host health such as increased susceptibility to infection and reduced lifespan. Our findings raise concerns about the long-term impact of novel nACHR insecticides, particularly FPF, on pollinator health and recommend a novel methodology for a refined risk assessment that includes the potential effects of agrochemicals on the gut microbiome of bees.