DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vmcvdnd0w
title: Feeding with plant powders increases longevity and body weight of Western honeybee workers (Apis mellifera)

description: Beekeepers routinely substitute honey from managed western honeybees, Apis
 mellifera, colonies with sugar water post-harvest, potentially leading to
 malnutrition. Although nutritional supplements have been created, a
 general consensus on proper colony nutrition for beekeeping has yet to be
 reached. Thus, finding easily obtainable fortified A. mellifera food
 alternatives is still of interest. Here, we test plant powder-enriched
 food supplements since a priori evidence suggests plant extracts can
 enhance dry body weight and longevity of workers. Freshly emerged workers
 were kept in hoarding cages (N=69 days) and fed either with 50 % (w/v)
 sucrose solution alone or additionally with one of 12 powders:
 Laurus nobilis, Quercus spp., Curcuma longa, Hypericum spp.,
 Spirulina platensis, Calendula officinalis, Chlorella vulgaris, Melissa
 officinalis, Moringa oleifera, Rosa canina, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and
 Urtica dioica (N=2028 workers total). The dry body weight was
 significantly increased in Quercus spp., Hypericum spp.,
 Spirunlina platensis, Mellisa officinalis, Moringa oelifera, and
 Trigonella foenum-graecum treatments. Further, the longevity was
 significantly increased in Quercus spp., Curcuma longa,
 Calendulae officinalis, Chlorella vulgaris, Melissa officinalis, Rosa
 canina, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and Urtica diocia treatments. Given
 that plant extracts can enhance A. mellifera health, plant powders
 possibly provide additional macro- (i.e. proteins, lipids, peptides) and
 micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) thereby enhancing nutrient
 availability. Further investigations into the mechanisms underlying these
 effects and field studies are recommended to validate these findings in
 real-hive scenarios.
description: The data were collected during hoarding cage experiments
 conducted at the Institute of Bee Health in 2022. The data have been
 processed using the opensource software R (version 4.3.2
 (2023-10-31)).
description: # Feeding with plant powders increases longevity and body weight of
 Western honeybee workers (Apis mellifera)
 The dataset contains
 Sucrose consumption data, Survival Data, and Dry Weight data ##
 Description of the data and file structure All data are found an excel
 sheet, with tabs for the sucrose consumption, survival, and dry weight.
 **Sucrose consumption tab**: Here, there are 4 variables: **cage** (unique
 ID for each experimental cage), **treatment** (plant species), **day**
 (time point of measurement), and **loss** (amount of food consumed in
 milligrams / bee). **Survival tab**: Here, there are 4 variables: **cage**
 (unique ID for each experimental cage), **treatment** (plant species),
 **day** (time point of measurement), **individual** (unique ID assigned to
 bee in the order they died, i.e. #1 = first bee to die in cage),
 **removed** (how many bees died / were removed at that time point), and
 **status** (o = right censored, 1 = died naturally). **Dry Weight tab** :
 Here, there are 4 variables: **cage** (unique ID for each experimental
 cage), **treatment** (plant species), **day** (time point of measurement),
 **dry weight** (weight of each individual in milligrams), **ID** (first
 number is associated to cage, the second number is associated to the
 **individual** removed, and there were 3 individuals per cage, e.g: 2.1,
 2.2, 2.3). ## Code/Software All code was done in R. See attached R code
 file called "Final Plant Powders 2024"