Better-B is working to strengthen resilience in European beekeeping, as climate change, emerging pests and diseases continue to affect honey bee colonies. Understanding how stakeholders engage with and benefit from collaborative research is key to improving our project activities and outcomes.

As part of this effort, we are inviting beekeepers, researchers, advisors, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders involved in the project to participate in a short survey and share their experiences.

Your responses will help us better understand participation in the Better-B project, including collaboration, knowledge exchange, and learning outcomes. The insights gathered will support improvements in project activities and help ensure that research outputs are relevant, accessible, and useful for the beekeeping community.

The survey is anonymous and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. To take part, please use the link or QR code below. We also encourage you to share the survey within your networks, your input is valuable in strengthening our collective understanding.
Take the survey

Better‑B is working to strengthen resilience in European beekeeping, as climate change, emerging pests and diseases are increasingly affecting honeybee colonies. We’re trying to better understand the awareness, preparedness and current resilience of the European beekeeping sector.

As part of this effort, we’re inviting bee inspectors, veterinarians, researchers, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders to participate in a short survey, to share their experiences with invasive species affecting the beekeping sector in Europe.

Your answers will help us better understand how response measures work in practice across regions, what challenges are being faced and the kind of support that’s needed for more effective invasive species prevention and management. The insights gathered will contribute to recommendations for policy and guidance documents for invasive species for current and potential threats to european beekping.

The survey is anonymous and should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. To take part please use the link or QR code below. Please also consider sharing the survey with your relevant networks. The more insights we gather, the stronger our collective understanding.
Take the survey

Better‑B is working to help beekeepers protect their colonies from the challenges brought by climate change. Increasingly frequent extreme weather events - such as heat waves - can make it harder for honeybee colonies to maintain stable hive temperatures. Through several test stations and field trials, we are studying the physical factors that support better hive thermoregulation and exploring practical ways beekeepers can adapt hive designs to local environmental conditions. For more information you can read this newsletter or watch this video.

To deepen our understanding of what truly works in real-world beekeeping, we have created a short survey, and we would greatly appreciate your input.

We invite all beekeepers to share their experiences with hive design, including those who have not made any modifications. Knowing what you have tried over the years and equally, why you haven’t helps us build a clearer picture of which approaches are useful, practical, bee‑friendly, and suited to real‑world beekeeping.
Take the survey

By completing the survey (available in several European languages), you will contribute to identifying effective ideas that can be shared with beekeepers across Europe. We will publish a handbook about how beehives can be improved, based on our work and insights gained from answers to the survey.

The survey is anonymous and takes about 15 minutes to complete. If you are a beekeeper, please use the link below or QR code to take part. We also encourage you to share the survey within your networks, the more voices we hear, the better.

We are pleased to announce that the 2025 report on our citizen science study is now available for download on its dedicated page. There, you will find more information not only about the study itself, but also about how to participate if you find it interesting. Enjoy reading!

A broader understanding of honey bee immunity is crucial, given the numerous threats modern honey bees are facing. Hemocytes play a central role in immune responses, making it essential to identify the different hemocyte subtypes.

In our new paper, we explored the hemocyte surfaceome using proteomics and transcriptomics. This work takes the first step towards an objective, marker-based classification of honey bee hemocytes by proposing candidate cell surface markers.

Surprisingly, our gene ontology analysis revealed the term “odorant receptor activity”, typically associated with sensory neurons. This raises questions about whether hemocytes may use similar receptors to sense environmental or pathogen-derived signals.

This study provides a foundation for future research into honey bee immunity and the development of monoclonal antibodies for immunophenotyping.