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Hello all,

Our tool boxes are ready to be posted  to Citizen Scientists! They have everything, at least for the start. Only towel paper is missing! Note that 2 pollen traps are also included. Unfortunately a third pollen trap did not fit in the box!

Lets start then!

Hello! We tried out the collection of beebread with the use of a normal straw, cut in the midle. As you can see it is easy to collect form 1 cell, but then each one you add it gets more difficult. we think that up to 5 cells is ok and the weight of this bee bread is between 0.3 and 0.45 g.

Therefore, 3 straws can be used to sample 5 cells each, even 6, from each colony.

In 2019, INSIGNIA will sample in 4 countries. In Austria, Denmark, Greece and United Kingdom we have 4 to 5 apiaries with 3 colonies each. Below is a map with the locations that are studied!

The second stage; from year 1 sampling to the evaluation of the results.

We depart for the second stage. Most of the preliminary studies planned in stage 1, from kick-off to sampling commencement, are done, coming to an end in the months to come or will start soon. Surely new questions will raise and are to be addressed in the project course. Within six months after the attribution of the Grant Agreement in the last week of October 2018, the sampling begins this weekend of 28 April 2019. After the preparations as there were  telemeetings, study set-up discussions, and agreements on numbers of colonies, number of apiaries, number of samplings, matrices replications and combinations, development of the APIStrip, local organization of the beekeeper citizen scientists, picture manual, tutorials and other instruction tools, questionnaire, preliminary pollen- and pesticide residue binding- and deterioration tests, practical lab and field work, initiation of the sociological study, the dissemination structure and a lot of everyday issues, the field work starts. This is exciting because we are doing pioneering work with the non-invasive sampling, with the non-biological matrices APIStrip and Beehold tubes, the new beebread collection tool, the familiar pollen trap, apiculturist citizen scientist for pesticide monitoring and the first sociological evaluation of apiculturist citizen scientists. We will encounter a lot of practical issues like swarming, drought, heavy rainfall, supersedure, and issues we can not imagine now. It is up to the Insignia team to find answers and solutions. It will be as challenging as stage 2 and the Insignia team is aware of this and accepts.

According to the 2019 study setup, colony 1 combines all 4 sampling methods. The combination of the beehold tubes and the pollen trap is not that simple. We have already shown the adapter we build to integrate the tubes.

Now it is needed to apply the adapter to the colony and make it bee-tight, which is tricky, as first of all bees often find an alternative way in and out their colony, and second because bees need to get used to how the hive entrance looks and where they can enter the colony. The way through the beehold tubes and later the pollen trap is not easy…

Everything prepared, and ready to collect information from our bees’ environment. Three colonies from Graz, Austria with everything installed according to the 2019 study setup!

Continue reading “Ready, steady, go!”

This weekend is the setup for the 2019 sampling in Austria, Denmark, Greece and the UK. Pollen traps will be put on to the hives for the bees to get used to them, together with BEEHOLD tubes and APISTRIPS. The first samples will be collected in a fortnight’s time. In the UK, four apiaries will be used in Hertfordshire, Surrey (2) and East Sussex. The sites provide a range of landscapes from a national nature reserve with heathland and woodland to urban areas.