Better-B, together with the other four European beekeeping projects currently underway, had a prominent presence at the 2025 APIMONDIA conference. Below is an overview of the projects’ various actions.
We covered several topics that we hope will be of interest for the scientific and bee keeping community, including:
Varroa destructor in Europe has significantly impacted local honey bee populations, and systematic chemical control of the parasite has become the norm. Within the Better-B project we will further investigate the possibility of natural selection to select bees that can survive in the presence of Varroa.
Every bee in this world depends on flowers for their food. The availability and diversity of flower plants determine if and how a bee can collect its food. As part of the Better-B project we want to catalogue and map plants in Europe used by bees, and other pollinators, through observations collected citizen scientists.
Independently of honey bees, hive temperatures are governed by heat transfers with the surrounding air (convection) and the sun (radiation) etc. Experiments conducted as part of the Better-B project will explore the thermal characteristics of honey bee hives and determine novel ways to help bees maintain stable hive temperatures.
If you would like to know more about the Better-B citizen science project, please visit our dedicated webpage. If you are interested in hive designs for thermal regulation you can read more about our work in our first Better-B newsletter.
Better-B has received funding from the European Union, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant number 10068544).
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, European Research Executive Agency (REA), SERI or UKRI. Neither the European Union nor the granting authorities can be held responsible for them.
