Projects

Viral infection in the pollen

The project's goal is to protect bumble bee colonies from viral infection in the pollen. Bumble bee factories grow thousands of colonies year-round. the bees in the factory are isolated from natural pathogens. However the bees consume pollen collected by honey bees which can be infected with pathogens like viruses.

The project is founded by The NIFA-BARD plan of the Israeli innovation authority. The project is done in collaboration with Biobee Sde Eliyaho.

Queen Next

The honey bee queen is the heart of the whole colony. Honey bee queen rearing is a special experty of few growerth around the world. The method of queen rearing used today is about 120 years old. In this project we develop new methods for honey bee queen rearing under lab conditions. The goal of the project is to grow is to investigate this fascinating process and to find ways to improve it and to grow high quality and healthy queens.

Social isolation in bees

Honey bees are highly social creatures. How do social isolation affects their behavior? We study the effect of social isolation in early life on the social behavior of honey bees under lab conditions.

The effect of Lithum on Varroa infection and on bees behaivor
 

The varroa mite is the major risk for honey bee population. The project aims to investigate new methods to treat Varroa destructor infection in honey bee colonies using Lithium slots. We study the effect of the treatment on the varroa levels, colony strength, and the behavior of the bees. The project is founded by the Honey Council of Israel.

Bees hormones and viral infection

Viruses are the ultimate parasites who use the host's body for their activity. This project aims to study the interaction between the bees' endocrinology and viral infection. Our first study in this project is on the influence of juvenile hormone on Israeli acute parlitic virus infection in bumble bee queens and in honey bee workers.