Publication
Authors
Chia-Hua Lin, Research Scientist, Department of Entomology (ENTMLGY)
Sreelakshmi Suresh, former Lab Manager (Bee Lab), ENTMLGY; Master’s Student, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Emma Matcham, former Master’s Student/Graduate Research Associate, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science; Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy, University of Florida
Paityn Monagan, former Student, Metro Early College High School
Hailey Curtis, former Undergraduate Researcher, ENTMLGY
Rodney T. Richardson, former PhD Student, ENTMLGY; Assistant Professor, Center for Environmental Science, University of Maryland
Reed M. Johnson, Associate Professor, ENTMLGY
Quick Take
Soybean is one of the most popular crops around the world due to its versatility and nutritional value. In many places, including Ohio, natural habitats have been converted to crop fields, changing their ecology. Beekeepers and soybean farmers have long debated the extent to which honey bees collect nectar from soybean flowers, as bees aren’t often observed feeding from them. As honey bee populations struggle across the county and soybean production rises, figuring out how much bees use soybean nectar to make honey is becoming increasingly important.
CFAES researchers in the Department of Entomology and the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science recently published a study examining how much honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) use and prefer soybean nectar. They studied the pollen contents of honey from Ohio apiaries (or bee yards) surrounded by differing percentages of soybean coverage in the area. They also set up two experimental colonies in glass-walled hives to observe honey bees during soybean bloom. They examined the contents of the nectar the bees collected to verify which flowers it came from, as well as analyzed waggle dances, movements used by honey bees to communicate the location of food to other bees.
Findings
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The researchers found that soybean flowers are an important nectar resource for honey bees on agricultural lands in Ohio, and bees consistently forage for these flowers when available.
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Apiaries near soybean fields showed significantly higher amounts of soybean pollen compared to other apiaries. In the experimental colonies, soybean pollen made up over 70% of pollen grains found in the honey produced during soybean bloom.
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By analyzing the honey bees’ waggle dances, the researchers found that bees preferred soybean fields over other foraging areas between 0.5 and 1.5 kilometers from the hive. When closer to or further from the hive, bees showed no preference for soybeans or non-soybean habitats.
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The bees in the study never showed a preference for non-soybean habitats over soybeans regardless of distance, which suggests that soybeans are an attractive nectar source while blooming.
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The researchers concluded that soybeans play an important role in supporting honey bees in Ohio. Management strategies such as creating pollinator habitats near soybean fields could provide additional food resources for bees when soybeans are not in bloom. These strategies could also improve the productivity of managed honey bees and potentially increase soybean yield.
Citation
Lin, C., Suresh, S., Matcham, E., Monagan, P., Curtis, H., Richardson, R. T., Johnson, R. M. “Soybean is a Common Nectar Source for Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in a Midwestern Agricultural Landscape.” Journal of Economic Entomology, 2022, toac140, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toac140
Additional Resources
Interested in learning more about honey bees and soybeans? CFAES researchers Chia-Hun Lin, Reed Johnson, and Laura Lindsey evaluated 123 soybean varieties that are commercially available in Ohio to study their nectar production and attractiveness to bees. Read the 2022 report here, or click the button below.