Project properties
Title How human - bee interaction may affect bee health
Fieldwork in Sweden or Netherlands
Group Behavioural Ecology
Project type thesis
Credits 24/36
Supervisor(s) Séverine kotrschal
Examiner(s) Alexander Kotrschal
Contact info severine.kotrschal@wur.nl
Begin date 2024/04/01
End date 2027/10/01
Description Healthy bees are crucial for the global food production. About one third of human diet directly or indirectly depends on successful pollination by bees. But the western honey bee struggles to survive. Colony numbers are rapidly declining partly due to the spread of the Varroa mite that was recently introduced to Europe from Asia. The mite feeds on bees haemolymph and vectors secondary diseases that ultimately cause colony death. A small number of wild colonies however can survive mite infestation and it is still largely unknown what immune and/or behavioural colony- level defences makes those colonies less susceptible to the mite. In this project we investigate, whether it is our own, intense human interaction with the honeybee that changes the bee behaviour making bees more vulnerable to the Varroa mite. Because beekeepers like friendly bees there is a constant bias (nowadays also directed breeding) for non-stinging, non-defensive honeybees that goes back to the middle ages when bees were first kept for honey. Nowadays in most apiaries bees readily accept human intervention and getting stung as a beekeeper upon opening the hive is rather the exception than the rule. One question remains: Did we humans select for super friendly bees that will no longer defend their nest against foreign, drifting bees bringing in new diseases to the colony?

If you like bees, want to learn about their exceptional fascinating behaviour, contribute to their protection and also want to spend lots of time outside in the Dutch and Swedish summer, this project is for you. Both MSc and BSc welcome, fieldwork can take place between May – October. Flexible, but preferred starting date early summer.
Find more information about bee research at WUR here: https://www.wur.nl/en/research-results/research-institutes/plant-research/biointeractions-plant-health/bees-1.htm
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