Busier bees: increasing nest traffic in commercial bumblebee colonies

Callum Douglas Martin,Michelle Fountain,Mark Brown,Callum Toner

doi:10.26786/1920-7603(2018)21

Callum Douglas Martin, Michelle Fountain + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2018)21

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Abstract

Commercially-reared bumblebee colonies contribute to the pollination of crops globally. If the efficiency of commercial colonies at providing pollination services could be increased, it would have implications for agricultural outputs. Commercial colonies are sold with an internal nectar reservoir on which bees can forage from within the nest. Nectar stores in naturally-produced nectar pots of colonies can affect forager recruitment and activity outside the nest. Thus, it is possible that artificial nectar reservoirs could impact the foraging activity of colonies. To investigate this, commercial Bombus terrestris audax colonies were placed in a university parkland campus. Colonies were split into three treatment groups: those with (1) access to an unaltered nectar reservoir; (2) access to a diluted reservoir; and (3) no reservoir access. Foraging observations were made for all colonies over a 19-day period. The mass of each colony was measured and demographic data were collected. Colonies with diluted reservoirs had 131% and 39% more bees entering and leaving than colonies with no reservoir access and unaltered reservoirs respectively. Both treatments with access to a nectar reservoir gained more mass, had a higher proportion of pollen foraging bees, and had more workers, males, larvae and pupae, than colonies with no access to a reservoir. These results demonstrate that manipulating the availability and concentration of internal nectar reservoirs of commercial B. terrestris colonies significantly affects the number of bees entering and leaving the colony. Dilution of the nectar reservoir could be a strategy for increasing the pollination services commercial colonies provide to crops. Further research in commercial crops is required before such a strategy could be implemented on farms.

Highlights

Bees are one of the most important pollinator groups, contributing to global food production, and human health and wellbeing (Klein et al 2007; Aizen et al 2009; Kleijn et al 2015; Rader et al 2016)
The results clearly demonstrate that manipulating both the availability and concentration of the internal nectar reservoirs of commercial B. terrestris audax colonies can significantly affect the number of bees entering and leaving the colony
131% more nest traffic than control and closed reservoir colonies respectively. This suggests that there is potential for the pollination services provided by commercial bumblebees to be improved with such a dilution

Summary

Introduction

Bees are one of the most important pollinator groups, contributing to global food production, and human health and wellbeing (Klein et al 2007; Aizen et al 2009; Kleijn et al 2015; Rader et al 2016). A significant proportion of crop pollination services are provided by populations of managed honey-bees and commercial bumblebees, which increase yield and quality of crops, and provide a buffer against the declines of many wild pollinator species (Klein et al 2007; Calderone 2012; Klatt et al 2014). One obvious driver of pollination services is the number of bees that leave a colony to visit the crop. If the rate at which bees leave their colony to forage on the crop could be enhanced, the pollination services each colony provides to the crop could potentially be improved. In addition to enhancing crop productivity, this could reduce the

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