D3270: Enhancement of a pollen substitute to promote honeybee health

The honey bee faces several environmental challenges, among which poor nutrition is a significant threat. Previous research shows that commercial diets often fall short in promoting bee health compared to natural pollen. This study aims to enhance the dietary benefits of a pollen substitute on bee health by improving the manufacturer's formulation with minimal investment. The feeding trials consisted of newly emerged bees distributed into four diet groups: 1) sugar-only negative control (Control), 2) true control, the substitute MegaBee prepared according to the manufacturer’s recommendation (MB), 3) MegaBee enhanced with invert sugar, Honey B Healthy feeding stimulant, and vitamin C (MB+), and 4) MB+ in the presence of the probiotic superDMF (MB+/DMF). The experiment lasted 2 weeks, during which samples were collected at various time points to measure diet consumption, body weight, whole body protein content, total protein digested, and the expression of several nutrition-responsive genes as well as the marker gene vitellogenin.