The major role of spring trees in Ohio honey production for bees located in high and low agricultural intensity

Abstract

Nectar is the resource that sustains honey bee colonies through periods of dearth and provides the surplus honey beekeepers harvest for human consumption. While extensive information is available for plants that honey bees visit for pollen and nectar, we lack knowledge on which nectars are stored long-term as honey for harvest and support of colonies through winter. Here, we used citizen science methods and pollen metabarcoding analysis to identify the plants contributing most to honey samples harvested by beekeepers from apiaries with variable intensities of surrounding agriculture. A total of 36 samples were collected from 36 apiaries in Ohio in 2019, with an average of 3 plant genera detected per sample. We found similarity in honey samples collected from all apiaries, regardless of the proportion of agricultural land within a 2-km foraging range, with substantial amounts of honey stored from spring trees, including Salix (willow) and Prunus (cherry). This result suggests the importance of early-season resources regardless of agricultural intensity in the surrounding landscape. This study contributes to a body of work aiming to identify the nectars making it to long-term honey storage and those that are being consumed within the hive shortly after collection.