Honey bees are an important part of global agriculture, responsible for the pollination of about a third of the world’s crops. A concerning trend has emerged in recent years: honey bee colonies are increasingly experiencing queen failures and engaging in a process known as supersedure. Given what’s at stake, worker bees are quick to act if they sense their queen has stopped laying enough eggs. They make the tough decision to replace her, putting a younger, healthier queen in her place. A new study sheds light on what’s really behind these shifts. It further investigates these impacts on food security and healthy ecosystems worldwide.
Led by principal investigators Dr. Alison McAfee and Dr. Leonard Foster, their team of researchers has discovered a startling trend. They showed how bad the viral infections are in queen honey bees. These pathogens drastically impair the reproductive potential of the queens and disturb the hive’s complex social order. Their research appears in print in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). They’re trying to bring attention to the alarming state of queen bee health and its effects on colony-wide health and sustainability.
Understanding Supersedure
Supersedure is a natural process within honey bee colonies where tens of thousands of worker bees coordinate to replace a failing queen. This happens when the queen’s egg-laying ability starts to fail, often due to health problems, like viral infections. Continental or European beesheds in England and Wales have been available in 850–3,200 for each queen per day. On top of that incredible achievement, it’s usually greater than her entire body weight!
Just as worker bees recognize when their queen has stopped doing a good job, so too do they start the process of supersedure. This includes choosing promising new larvae to rear into queens, which the colony needs to replace itself. The importance of this rapid process is underscored by the need for a young and healthy queen to manage a productive, stable colony.
The Impact of Viral Infections
McAfee and Foster’s research further emphasizes a key point — viral infections are a serious risk to honey bee queens. Yet for all their importance, this issue tends to be overlooked. These diseases can cause the queens’ ovaries to atrophy, leading to a decreased ability to lay eggs. In response, their reproductive success suffers. As a result, infected queens secrete reduced levels of methyl oleate, a pheromone essential to keeping workers from swarming.
As methyl oleate production decreases, the social hierarchy of the colony starts to break down. This disruption often causes a domino effect causing anarchy among the worker bees as well, possibly further interrupting any attempts to maintain a positive hive dynamic. As beekeepers have reported an increase in “poor queens” as a leading cause of overwintering losses, understanding and addressing these viral infections has become increasingly urgent.
“Our research really emphasizes how virus infections in queens can be a major problem for beekeepers.” – Dr. Alison McAfee
The Broader Implications for Agriculture
Widespread decline in queen health threatens other aspects of our pollination ecosystem. It jeopardizes global food systems and undermines community health in the process. Bees like honey bees are key to pollinating the crops that feed billions of people around the world. With their population decimated by the rapid onset of chronic illnesses such as viral infections, food security is threatened.
Concerns about queen failures and premature supersedure have long been at the forefront for beekeepers. These issues not only put their livelihoods at risk, but threaten productivity of agriculture on the national stage. As the colonies have battled through weak leadership with failing queens, crop production may severely drop as well.
“Keeping the queen healthy is one more reason why it is so critical to think ahead and keep varroa levels under control.” – Dr. McAfee
Dr. Leonard Foster points out the importance of proactive measures, adding, “That could be a big deal for beekeepers.” The study’s findings are a strong advocate for better management practices for commercial queen bees. Only in this way can we save honey bees and their irreplaceable role in our agricultural production.