Study bees for my Honours project?

how about something applied? Like the life cycle of veroa mites or look at the effects of nicatinoid pesticies on honey bees, or the adaptability of Russian bees in areas affected by CCD.

I have about a dozen hives with 6 supers, of all Italian bees and my farm is basically chemical-free and Im surrounded by about 5000Acres of Amish nd other ORGANIC dairy and swine farms. Theres one small development along the edges and weve communicated with the Home Owners Association to try to convince them to NOT use nicatinoids.
My own hives and my neighbors hives are doing fine. SO far nobody"s experienced CCD.
Keeping veroa and nic'noids out has been shown to be affective but we have no real scientific data, and places like Penn State or U Maryland are just doing basic research on stuff like genetics and chemical breakdown and half-life determinations for nic'noids

Thank you so much for the ideas @farmerman! The varroa mite is something I was thinking of looking into and CCD as they are both very relevant to beekeeping. I myself have two hives and we are just trying to get through the winter but thankfully it hasn't been too harsh. What you said about the research from Penn and Maryland sound like their research could be further developed towards bees and beekeeping so I am definitely going to try and think about that. Thanks again!

good luck. Has your honey crop this year been a good one?
Do you feed your hives over winter?
Do you hve Ag department bee specialists in your country? (UK??)

How about f you study and compare several means of Varroa control?.
IS there a lot known about their life cycle in your country?
Im only aware of a relevant life -cycle paper or two by a guy named V Huang at Michigan State apiary rogram.
Theres several species pf varroa and each with a separate host. Im sure theres been some genetic work among these species

In 5 years 90% of bees will be extinct.
What's the point?

Idiot! You have a crystal ball? Stop talking out of your ass. Humans will be extinct in 200 years so what is the point of bothering with any of it?

Seeing you have no science background, what is the scientific proof for your careless comment? Oh, I see. You have none. You're guessing. I thought so.

Likewise, research is unclear of what the honey bees fate will be Admittedly it is not good but that is why having a defeatist attitude (or fomenting one) is counterproductive. The OP and Farmerman are doing what they can from a scientific perspective to prevent the Bess demise. This is a positive step to help mankind and our survival. How are you helping this goal?

Now is the time to promote a positive approach and researching methods as to what can be done to save them.

there are tens of thousands of species of bee (pollinators) . There are about 2 hundred species of honeybee. We are already seeing that ground bees nd Bumblebees (in areas affected by CCD) have expanded their numbers to "take over" pollination work now that A.mellifera has been reduced in numbers .

Many orchard owners have already begun switching to Russin strains of honeybee and theyve already been able to "calm down" africanized bees by cross breeding.

Theres a whole lot he doesnt have a clue about (Im only a hobbyist and can read **** about the fate of bees on the I-net from peer reviewed stuff from various State U ag depts and International research from places like Germany, UK, Russia, India, and Indonesisa

Thanks! Good luck to your hives too!
Our hives are very young so we didn't harvest any honey in 2016. And yes we have been feeding them sugar fondant since November. But I'm not too sure if we a bee specialist in the agricultural department in the UK. Do you have one in the states?

every county has an apiarist on staff at the state dept of ag . e have a program of hive inspections for control of moths and other pests.
Honey and pollinating is a big business in various states of US. (Apples, peaches, citrus, cherries , alfalfa etc)

Record the date of my post and then (5 yrs hence) feel free to criticise. Or listen and regurgitate the bollux-directive of your ilk-related info-medium.

Bees are a huge interest of mine - Their extinction is a precursor to everything that eats' extinction.

Blurting self-relative, media-derived bollux won't save the bees (SYMBIOTICS).
Larsen C's due to pop - 50k sqr km of ?

Do you know how many (domino-effect) 'issues' this 'one' event sets in motion?

As for seeing into the 'future'.
There is only 'NOW'.

Ragman - All the best to the bees (everything, actually), but it is what it is.
I know how to fix it too.
But the journey through this 'physical' realm is brief - The bees don't care about you - So leave them be.