The effects of diet enhancement on the health of commercial bumblebee colonies.

ABSTRACT: Commercially reared bees provide economically important pollination services for a diversity of crops. Improving their health is important both to maximise their pollination services and to avoid possible pathogen spillover or spillback with wild pollinators. Diet quality may directly or indirectly affect diverse aspects of bumblebee health, including colony development, individual size and immune health, but the impact of this remains unclear. Here we investigate experimentally the effect of diet quality during bumblebee colony development using three diets: (1) a standard pollen diet used in commercial rearing of colonies for sale, (2) an enhanced diet comprised of a wildflower pollen mix that was expected to be nutritionally superior (including by having an elevated protein content) and

SUBMITTER: Hulse RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11695492 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature