Suggestions for research

[Apiarisnt]

Undertake a study of plants sold by garden centres as good for bees and see if a honey bee ever visits any of them.

I particularly like: " RHS `Perfect for Pollinators' list,......In other words, there were many recommended varieties that were unattractive or poorly attractive to insects, and some non-recommended varieties that were very attractive (Table S2). Thus, the use of the word ``perfect'' by the RHS list is inaccurate and presumably was chosen for marketing reasons"

 

[Fionacon1]

Hi all,

I work part time at a University and as part of that some students are inflicted and afflicted with me as a research project supervisor. It's at the point in the year when I have to come up with titles and rough outlines for research projects which are randomly allocated to students; I will have two student projects and would like to do one on something bee related.

Does anyone have any ideas or questions which I can unleash a (hopefully enthusiastic) student upon, subject to the below fussiness?

• Ideas would need to be relatively simple as they only have a pathetic 2k words per project and a couple of months to do it in alongside other studies.
• As this involves a university, health and safety likely means I'll need to do most data collection myself if it involves handling bees.
• There may be a budget of up to £300 for the project.
• I would like something which could actually be useful/meaningful to beekeeping as, in my opinion, a lot of research is done because someone needs to do a project for x/y/z reason rather than for purposes which actually benefit the broader population.
• I also prefer the idea of collecting and analysing actual data rather than opinions...

I've got a couple of weeks to come up with the outline so if anyone has any good suggestions, please post them below. TIA!

How to protect a colony from wasp attacks

 

[Beelosser]

Hi all,

I work part time at a University and as part of that some students are inflicted and afflicted with me as a research project supervisor. It's at the point in the year when I have to come up with titles and rough outlines for research projects which are randomly allocated to students; I will have two student projects and would like to do one on something bee related.

Does anyone have any ideas or questions which I can unleash a (hopefully enthusiastic) student upon, subject to the below fussiness?

• Ideas would need to be relatively simple as they only have a pathetic 2k words per project and a couple of months to do it in alongside other studies.
• As this involves a university, health and safety likely means I'll need to do most data collection myself if it involves handling bees.
• There may be a budget of up to £300 for the project.
• I would like something which could actually be useful/meaningful to beekeeping as, in my opinion, a lot of research is done because someone needs to do a project for x/y/z reason rather than for purposes which actually benefit the broader population.
• I also prefer the idea of collecting and analysing actual data rather than opinions...

I've got a couple of weeks to come up with the outline so if anyone has any good suggestions, please post them below. TIA!

Measure thermal efficiency cedar vs poly hives. Then measure the amount of energy required to regulate temp in uninsulated cedar hive vs insulated.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Measure thermal efficiency cedar vs poly hives. Then measure the amount of energy required to regulate temp in uninsulated cedar hive vs insulated.

already been done

 

[Apiarisnt]

Measure thermal efficiency cedar vs poly hives. Then measure the amount of energy required to regulate temp in uninsulated cedar hive vs insulated.

search for Derek Mitchell online or on this forum

 

[Sutty]

Re the syrup feeding you could feed each colony twice and measure uptake in eg 24hrs, one with electrolytes and one without. Randomise which they get 1st then they will be their own controls.

 

[Beelosser]

Shows it was a good idea. When I used to supervise projects (electronics) I used to decide what piece of equipment that I would like to play with and design the project around that.

 

[Prof]

Hi all,

I work part time at a University and as part of that some students are inflicted and afflicted with me as a research project supervisor. It's at the point in the year when I have to come up with titles and rough outlines for research projects which are randomly allocated to students; I will have two student projects and would like to do one on something bee related.

Does anyone have any ideas or questions which I can unleash a (hopefully enthusiastic) student upon, subject to the below fussiness?

• Ideas would need to be relatively simple as they only have a pathetic 2k words per project and a couple of months to do it in alongside other studies.
• As this involves a university, health and safety likely means I'll need to do most data collection myself if it involves handling bees.
• There may be a budget of up to £300 for the project.
• I would like something which could actually be useful/meaningful to beekeeping as, in my opinion, a lot of research is done because someone needs to do a project for x/y/z reason rather than for purposes which actually benefit the broader population.
• I also prefer the idea of collecting and analysing actual data rather than opinions...

I've got a couple of weeks to come up with the outline so if anyone has any good suggestions, please post them below. TIA!

What about surveying/mapping local tree forage and any feral colonies?

 

[Wilco]

If you find a project that requires equipment or materials that are available from my company I would be happy to help, the proviso is the results are freely available to others, hopefully to stimulate more of the same type of projects, lost of small projects may just be the answer to a lot of simple problems confronting beekeepers, help establish a different mindset in some areas

Thank you. In that case we're going to to a multi centre large scale trial into honey yields, testing how to set up a bee farming business and will require several hives plus bees, suits, extraction equipment.

In all seriousness though, that's incredibly kind and I may well take you up on it (subject to you agreeing the project is worth doing). I would want any findings to be freely available anyway as I have a dislike of research being secreted away behind paywalls. At the very least I'd report any findings back here (and then everyone can point out the flaws in the project design!).

You will probably find that any intellectual property arising from this project which has a scintilla of commercial value becomes the exclusive property of the university. Makes me seethe the way that universities have ceased to be benevolent learning institutions and have become profiteering business corporations whose currency is information which they sell at extortionate rates the costs of which is mortgaged onto the future of our young people. 2000 word project with possibly a £300 budget that is costing the student circa £4000 to fund!

Unlikely fortunately for something at this level although I do agree about the profiteering business mentality seen in universities today. Plus if a technique is published/shown to there's not much to stop people using it... Costs the students a bit more than 4k to fund!!!!

I particularly like: " RHS `Perfect for Pollinators' list,......In other words, there were many recommended varieties that were unattractive or poorly attractive to insects, and some non-recommended varieties that were very attractive (Table S2). Thus, the use of the word ``perfect'' by the RHS list is inaccurate and presumably was chosen for marketing reasons"

Yes, I've heard about this one- University of Sussex have some really good wildlife/biodiversity research.

How to protect a colony from wasp attacks

Think we may struggle to test this in the timeframe/time of year involved and again there are issues with controlling variables such as genetics, colony size, annual variations of wasp levels, quantifying effect of predation but @jenkinsbrynmair are you aware of any peer reviewed studies into your UFEs compared to standard entrances?

Re the syrup feeding you could feed each colony twice and measure uptake in eg 24hrs, one with electrolytes and one without. Randomise which they get 1st then they will be their own controls.

That's a good idea- I think I may put that forward for next year so I can spend the season trying to standardise my colonies to test it on. Thank you! About the sort of level for these projects too, will check the literature to see if it's been done before and if not will let you know if we go ahead.

When I used to supervise projects (electronics) I used to decide what piece of equipment that I would like to play with and design the project around that.

Yes, this is the way (partly why I'm hoping to put forward one project title on bees rather than more mainstream vet stuff).

What about surveying/mapping local tree forage and any feral colonies?

I like this idea but suspect the university may not be on board with the H+S aspects of this. May suggest to the local agricultural college who have a decent acreage, more practical dissertations and a higher word count.

 

[Wilco]

An comparative study of of how much honey / chemicals are in supermarket honey vs sugar water etc etc compared to a similar number of samples from random beeks. At the price people sell you should be able to get plenty of samples

A random study of how much honey a hive genuinely produces ie contact a hundred beeks and establish how many hives / how many suppers how many L/ lb honey they extract. In any given year. compare the results to what beaks report on here. Or is regurgitated in books.
It might produce a realistic rather than regurgitated figures given in books or the oft quoted my best hive in 19.0.dot produced xxx who knows if selected beeks have kept proper hive records you may be able to demonstrate the effect of honey production on climate change.

Not suggesting people exaggerate or under declare but I know lots of bricklayers ,quantity surveyors and customers , that think a bricky lays 1000 bricks a day …but In 40 years I have only Seen 1 do it.

Ask groups of beaks control questions and see how many different answers you really get. This could be compared with asking Controle questions of say train spotters , migrants seeking asylum & politicians to determine if there are any social or economic variances.

Undertake a study of plants sold by garden centres as good for bees and see if a honey bee ever visits any of them.

I genuinely think your idea is great and hope you find the right question and a student to take it forward.

I'd like to do this but you should see the prices they charge for a single day of using the Mass Spec... definitely not in budget!

Survey of yields may be doable too- at least would give discrete findings rather than opinions although would need to think how to control all the variables in this. The word count for this project really hamstrings investigating things like this.

Are you that 1000 a day brickie?

Think someone's said, the plants sold as good for bees thing has been done- it's amazing how few are actually good for insects, especially with modern cultivars.

Thanks- just need to work out logistics! So many limiting factors that I must come across as quite fussy.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

@jenkinsbrynmair are you aware of any peer reviewed studies into your UFEs compared to standard entrances?

None that I've seen or heard of, pretty hard to quantify as well. added to that the fact there are loads of variations to the design - at least three now commercially available

 

[Wilco]

I have two ideas.

1. Measuring the Internal Volume Areas of the T2 Tracheas of A. m. mellifera - and possibly Buckfasts as well, AND include Drones: Research was conducted in (from memory) 2004 on south Mediterranean / Balkan bees (four sub-species), it found a direct correlation between Acarapis woodi mite infestation of the T2 Trachea and the internal volume area, basically larger = more mites. Bailey established decades ago that a colony needs to have a 30%+ population infestation for Acarine (CBPV) symptoms to be observable, at 50%+ infestation survival of the hive would became an issue, especially in Winter. It has been suspected that the Drones helped spread the old Isle of Wight Disease, and that A. m. mellifera are more susceptible to Acarine (a combination of Acarapis woodi and CBPV) than other bees. This research could answer these questions. You could go one step further and obtain A. m. mellifera from different regions in Europe that we know are genetically distinct from each other, such as northern and southern France, Poland and south Russia. I also suspect that the Buckfast bee may not be as resistant to Acarine as it once was due to Varroa treatments which kill Acarapis woodi, meaning resistance (small internal volume areas) aren't being breed for.

2. Measure the mating heights of Queens and Drones of A. m. mellifera, and maybe other sub-species such as A. m. carnica and Buckfast, under British conditions. This is more technical and microscopic devices would need to be attached to the bees in question. Research has been conducted on the continent for A. m. carnica and A. m. ligustica that shows they mate at different heights. The ramifications of this for beekeepers trying to rear their own queens is potentially very significant; a bit difficult to explain (and it is conjecture), but basically if a beekeeper buys a A. m. ligustica queen and rears a virgin from her, the virgin will enter into the DCA at a different height than the local Drones but at the same height as her own, very few brothers, the first Drone that mates with the queen contributes about 30% of the total spermatoza that the queens obtains on that mating flight... queens that mate with their brothers cause the workers in a mating nuc or colony to become aggressive, until she's replaced).

These are quite interesting. The former may be doable if I chat with some of the lab/path teams...

The latter may not be possible within budget although would be good to do... wonder if one of the electronics depts may be able to assist. I'd be interested to know if this applies here and how mongrel genetics might interfere with this. Do you have a reference to back up the queens mating with brothers being more aggressive (ignoring the standard aggressive vs defensive discussion).

 

[Wilco]

None that I've seen or heard of, pretty hard to quantify as well. added to that the fact there are loads of variations to the design - at least three now commercially available

Thanks... so potential option here. I was thinking it would be challenging to empirically quantify and control. Part of the issue I have is I'd like to have a relatively robust design to the research which limits a lot of options.

I'm in the middle of switching to UFEs so have a mix of kit and could spread this across apiaries next year which might go some way towards tests and controls for this. Any research would certainly need to specify it was a certain style of UFE used and I'd probably lean towards one shown by BMH's video or your designs on here as then no individual commercial version suddenly gets the 'scientifically proven' advertising bonus. Do you reckon it's doable?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thanks... so potential option here. I was thinking it would be challenging to empirically quantify and control. Part of the issue I have is I'd like to have a relatively robust design to the research which limits a lot of options.

I'm in the middle of switching to UFEs so have a mix of kit and could spread this across apiaries next year which might go some way towards tests and controls for this. Any research would certainly need to specify it was a certain style of UFE used and I'd probably lean towards one shown by BMH's video or your designs on here as then no individual commercial version suddenly gets the 'scientifically proven' advertising bonus. Do you reckon it's doable?

I reckon it could be. I've seen the variations on the BMH video and I'm unsure really, I would just go with the standard front loading entrance with full width opening, just got to decide on the depth of the side rails really and stick to that, maybe a 4" side rail, 3" and a narrow one giving a tight10mm entrance at the front as well as in the floor, which would be more like the Kewl floor

 

[Wilco]

I reckon it could be. I've seen the variations on the BMH video and I'm unsure really, I would just go with the standard front loading entrance with full width opening, just got to decide on the depth of the side rails really and stick to that, maybe a 4" side rail, 3" and a narrow one giving a tight10mm entrance at the front as well as in the floor, which would be more like the Kewl floor

I'd probably go with the a single UFE design with mesh floor rather than all the BMH variations (certainly at first) as mixing up the floor is another variable. Hadn't thought of trying different depths of side rails for the UFEs- good point (and would enable using some of the more fun statistical tests). Do you use a mixture of 4'', 3'' and 10mm ones yourself? Asking because I'd ideally want to do repeats of each within and across apiaries so this would escalate the number of hives to significantly more than I have. Could do a preliminary study of one UFE size vs standard national entrance the first time then if a difference is seen trial different UFEs against each other in future years.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'd probably go with the a single UFE design with mesh floor rather than all the BMH variations (certainly at first) as mixing up the floor is another variable. Hadn't thought of trying different depths of side rails for the UFEs- good point (and would enable using some of the more fun statistical tests). Do you use a mixture of 4'', 3'' and 10mm ones yourself? Asking because I'd ideally want to do repeats of each within and across apiaries so this would escalate the number of hives to significantly more than I have. Could do a preliminary study of one UFE size vs standard national entrance the first time then if a difference is seen trial different UFEs against each other in future years.

Or you could set up a poll. There are plenty of people here who used to use standard OMF floors and have gone over to UFE. Would that be peer review?

 

[Patrick1]

The supermrket honey testing one would be a great one for a lab, proving th esource via a pollen search

 

[Patrick1]

The supermarket honey testing one would be a great one for a lab, proving the source via a pollen search using a simple centrifuge, how cool would that be

Edit poor spelling

 

[Apiarisnt]

The supermrket honey testing one would be a great one for a lab, proving th esource via a pollen search

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/honey-authenticity-project.49231/

 

[Wilco]

Or you could set up a poll. There are plenty of people here who used to use standard OMF floors and have gone over to UFE. Would that be peer review?

The issue with doing it by poll is that whilst it significantly increases the respondents, geographical area etc. and thus can lead to more valid findings is that there are

1. so many variables between beekeepers and apiaries that it can confound things
2. issues with standardising response variables such as wasp burden in such as way that all respondents are reporting equal quality data, including potential for observer/confirmation bias.

This being said, the limitations on these projects are such that most supervisors end up with survey based projects, particularly since Covid.

Peer review is a separate process to the researching- once the research is done, a paper can be submitted to be published in a journal. To ensure published material is sound, typically submissions are reviewed by other scientists in that field of research to check methodology, valid conclusions, etc. and the research may be rejected, edits suggested or accepted for publication. The process of review by scientists in that field of research is what's known as peer review and it's one of the reasons published research is generally more reliable than 'I did this and it worked', newspaper articles etc.. On the flip side, not being peer reviewed doesn't make something wrong or invalid and there are a lot of common sense things that people now do research on and publish results before acting all excited that they just 'proved' what's obvious to most people (and don't get me started on people repeating old research then acting like it's something new when they find exactly what the old research showed).