Bee Supplements Help With Cold, Fail in Heat Trials
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- Dr. Najmeh Sahebzadeh of the University of Zabol led early research finding worker bees fed a probiotic-plus-inulin mix survived prolonged cold exposure better than bees given ordinary sugar diets
- Lab tests at 40°C showed all caged bees died within days regardless of diet, though bees receiving higher supplement doses survived slightly longer than lower-dose counterparts
- Imperial College London's Peter Graystock and Newcastle University's Prof Giles Budge cautioned the study used isolated caged bees, and colony-level behaviors like collective wing-fanning can cool hives before thermal stress becomes fatal
- Sahebzadeh warned that supplements address immediate physiological stress but do not tackle underlying drivers — shrinking forage, fragmented habitat, and pesticide exposure
- Graystock expressed hope supplements wouldn't become the norm, saying reliance on them would indicate landscapes no longer give bees healthy natural forage, and noted winter is one of the riskiest periods for colonies since bees cannot leave the hive to forage
Why it matters: Beekeepers and crop producers reliant on managed honeybee colonies gain a possible tool for the cold months when bees can't forage, but the study's own authors and independent reviewers stress that supplements do not protect against the extreme heat events already killing bees at 40°C in lab tests, and cannot replace the habitat restoration and forage diversity that bee health ultimately depends on.
