Artificial superfood for bees boosts colony reproduction

An artificial “superfood” that provides essential nutrients for bees results in colonies producing much more larvae, suggesting it could help tackle the global decline in honeybees.

Bees need to eat pollen from a range of flowers to get the nutrients they need, including essential lipids called sterols. But due to climate change and industrial agriculture, the environments they live in often lack the floral diversity they need to survive. “We need more bees to do pollination for crops, and there is less food for them,” says Geraldine Wright at the University of Oxford.