Precision Beekeeping for the Development of More Productive and Resilient Apiculture Systems, Higher-Quality Products, Improved Sustainability, and Honey Bees’ Health
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 20678
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal feeding and nutrition; alternative protein sources; animal food quality and safety; beekeeping; insects for feed; circularity and sustainability; prevision livestock farming; precision beekeeping; in vitro models; agro-environmental contaminants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: poultry; rabbit; insects; nutrition; production; precision farming
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the era of climate change, the preeminent ecosystemic role of pollinators, including the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.), as well as their vulnerability, has emerged. Honey bees, more than other farmed animals, rely on what they can find in the environment in terms of nutritive sources (nectar and other sugary substances, pollen, water) both for their development and for the productive aims of beekeepers. Significant findings regarding how to manage and to breed honey bees date back to more than a century ago when very smart inventions, currently in use throughout the world, rapidly took place in Europe and the USA.
To date, managing honey bees according to such a consolidated praxis is revealing wide gaps in the knowledge and awareness of the delicate environment–bee relationship and honey bees’ behavior which beekeepers urgently need to deal with to avoid facing the loss of honey bee colonies and the associated economic cost.
Thus, it is urgent to find solutions that allow filling the existing gaps in honey bee management, and we firmly believe that new approaches based on technology (such as fit-for-purpose sensors, big data, decision support systems, and the so-called Internet of Things), geostatistics, remote sensing, behavioral science, animal genetics, and animal nutrition can support the sector of honey bee husbandry toward a renewed rational beekeeping era, the era of precision beekeeping.
Original manuscripts that address any aspects of the advanced knowledge of biology and management of honey bees are invited to this Special Issue. In particular, manuscripts should address one or more of the following (not exhaustively) listed topics:
- Quantitative and qualitative estimates of feed and water sources for honey bees;
- Environmental suitability for beekeeping;
- Nutrients availability for a growing animal husbandry at local and/or global level;
- Effect of climate change on honey bee health, beekeeping practices and bee product quantitative and qualitative traits
- “Cutting-edge” technologies for facing new challenges toward a more effective and sustainable beekeeping
- New advances in honey bee genetics.
For each of the listed topics, reasoned and updated reviews are also welcome.
Keywords
- precision beekeeping;
- modelling;
- IoT;
- precision feeding, honey bee-to-environment relationship;
- nutrition;
- sustainable beekeeping;
- honey bee health;
- biodiversity;
- foraging resources;
- pest management
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