RESOURCES

Below is a list of resources compiled by Honey Bee Watch on the topics of free-living (aka "wild" or "feral") honey bees, sustainable beekeeping, natural/bee-centric beekeeping, treatment-free beekeeping, and more.

If you have any recommended references or sources, please email us at ambeessadors@gmail.com.

HONEY BEE WATCH VIDEO RECORDINGS

Introduction to Honey Bee Watch
Project Director of Honey Bee Watch and moderator of the Symposia Series, Steve Rogenstein introduces our study, its mission, vision, objectives, current situation, past and future events, and how you can get involved.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Monitoring Protocols (28 June 2023)
Jovana Bila Dubaić 
(Part 1)
Jovana shares her team's research of free-living honey bees in Belgrade, Serbia, and talks about their monitoring protocol.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Monitoring Protocols (28 June 2023)
Grace McCormack 
(Part 2)
Grace shares her team's research of free-living honey bees throughout Ireland, and talks about their monitoring protocol.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Monitoring Protocols (28 June 2023)
Filipe Salbany 
(Part 3)
Filipe shares his team's research of free-living honey bees at Blenheim Palace & Estate (UK), and talks about their monitoring protocol.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Monitoring Protocols (28 June 2023)
Prof. Thomas Seeley 
(Part 4)
Tom shares his research of free-living honey bees in the Arnot Forest in upstate New York, and talks about his monitoring protocol.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Data Rights & Sharing (28 Sept 2023)
Roger Dammé 
(Part 1)
Roger explains the Honey Bee Wild project in Luxembourg and talks about their approach to data rights and data sharing.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Data Rights & Sharing (28 Sept 2023)
Paolo Fontana 
(Part 2)
Paolo explains the Bee Wild project in Italy and talks about their approach to data rights and data sharing.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Data Rights & Sharing (28 Sept 2023)
Noa Simón Delso 
(Part 3)
Noa discusses BeeLife's EU-wide mission and initiatives and how they've dealt with data rights and sharing issues, especially related to the new EU Pollinator Hub project.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Defining "Wild" (13 Dec 2023)
Hannes Bonhoff 
(Part 1)
Hannes shares his work with free-living honey bees in Sweden, reflects upon the term "wild," and proposes new ways to describe such populations.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Defining "Wild" (13 Dec 2023)
Patrick Kohl 
(Part 2)
Patrick summarizes his research in Germany, then explains population demographics and why he feels that free-living honey bees should be designated "wild."
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Defining "Wild" (13 Dec 2023)
Fabrice Requier 
(Part 3)
Fabrice talks about his research in France, competition between managed and free-living honey bees, factors threatening the latter, and where populations could potentially be found.
Honey Bee Watch Symposia Series
Defining "Wild" (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Joshin Thiele 
(Part 4)
Michael shares his work with free-living bees at Apis Arborea and talks about "novel perspectives" in conservation and Life Sciences, which could lead to new ways of thinking about and studying these populations.
Honey Bee Watch Café
(Part 1, 20 July 2023)

Paul Honigmann tours his Oxfordshire village and shares what signs he searches for when siting free-living honey bee nests
Honey Bee Watch Café
(Part 2, 20 July 2023)

Nichol Ruth Piniak explores the connection between humidity and bee health in Bermuda and talks about colony removals in Canada
Honey Bee Watch Café
(Part 3, 20 July 2023)

Jack Golds reflects on his free-living-bees journey and discusses making and installing horizontal cork hives in Portugal
Honey Bee Watch Café
(Part 1, 19 Oct 2023)

Ollie Visick presents interesting and surprising anecdotes and discoveries as part of his PhD study on free-living honey bees at University of Sussex. 
Honey Bee Watch Café
(Part 2, 19 Oct 2023)

Ivan Pigarev summarizes the history of tree beekeeping in Russia and explains how they're trying to preserve this centuries-old craft there.
Honey Bee Watch Café
(16 Nov 2023)

Julian Wormald talks about winter foraging bees in West Wales, UK, and the variety of nectar- and pollen-bearing, pollinator-friendly plants grown there.
RED LIST STATUS
IUCN Red List status for Apis mellifera
De la Rúa, P.; Paxton, R.J.; Moritz, R.F.A.; Roberts, S.; Allen, D.J.; Pinto, M.A.; Cauia, E.; Fontana, P.; Kryger, P.; Bouga, M.; Buechler, R.; Costa, C.; Crailsheim, K.; Meixner, M.; Siceanu, A. & Kemp, J.R.
FREE-LIVING HONEY BEE RESEARCH
Honey Bees in the Wild, Part 1: "What Can We Learn from Them?"
Roger Patterson, National Honey Show 2017
Website to share stories and projects about free-living honey bees
Research Paper

A Plea for Use of Honey Bees’ Natural Resilience in Beekeeping 
Blacquière, T. & Panziera, D., 2018
Private Facebook group connected by the practice of and interest in Zeidlerei, aka tree beekeeping
Dr. Margarita López-Uribe, Alternative Beekeeping Conference 2019
Dr. Przemysław Nawrocki, Learning from the Bees | Berlin 2019 conference
Article (download)
Article (download)

A Citizen Science Study of Wild Colonies of Honey Bees
Seeley, T., Natural Bee Husbandry #15, May 2020
Research Paper
Article (download)

Free-Living Colonies: Trick or Treat?
Dall'Olio, R. & Garrido, C., Bee World vol 98, 2020
Article (download)

Comparative monitoring of free-living honey bee colonies in three Western European regions
Lang, U., Albouy, V. & Zewen, C., Natural Bee Husbandry #23, 2022
Article (download)

Feral Honey Bees in Baja, California
Licón Luna, R.M., Natural Bee Husbandry #19, 2021
What We Can Learn from Wild Honey Bees
Grace McCormack, National Honey Show 2022
Research Paper (download)

Urban ecosystem drives genetic diversity in feral honey bee
Patenković, A. et al., 2022
Article (download)

Beekeeping (R)evolution: a Species Protection Program
Schiffer, T., Natural Bee Husbandry #12, 2019
Wild Bees in Hollow Power Poles in Galicia, Spain
Patrick Kohl, Alejandro Machado, Benjamin Rutschmann
A Day at Blenheim Palace & Estate
Honey Bee Watch organized a tour of Europe's largest and oldest ancient oak woodlands in search of bees in trees, led by Filipe Salbany and Francis Gilio
Research Paper

Density of wild honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies worldwide
Visick, O. & Ratnieks, F., 2023
Article (download)

The Curious Beekeeper: Appalachian Beekeeping the Foxfire Way
Burlew, R., American Bee Journal, Aug 2023
Точка возврата
(Point of Return)

The Natural Beekeeping Association of Russia produced this 53-min. video about human-bee interactions throughout history, the craft of tree beekeeping, and current beekeeping practices. (In Russian with English subtitles)
Honeybee conservation in Ireland
Mick Verspuij from Boomtreebees Ltd. in Ireland talks about free-living honey bees, carving and installing loghives, and honey bee conservation.
REWILDING PROJECTS
Preserving and protecting honey bees through rewilding
Rewilding Honeybees short documentary by Cameron Nielson
Honey bee conservation and the reforestation of a 25-acre pine monoculture in Central Portugal
Sustainable beekeeping in North Hampshire, UK, emphasizing hives with minimal intervention

Honey bee conservation and rewilding through habitat creation, education, and advocacy

Bractwo Bartne
Tree hive construction, installation, maintenance, workshops, and education in Poland's Augustow Primeval Forest
Sa Bienen Imkerei
Tree-beekeeping courses, exhibitions, projects, and consulting in Germany
Точка возврата
(Point of Return)

Honey bee conservation, rewilding, and habitat restoration in Russia

In Poland and Belarus, tree beekeeping has been recognized as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

Contacts

Project Director: Steve Rogenstein at The Ambeessadors
Science Director: Arrigo Moro at University of Galway

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