Beekeepers willingness to take up new bee health tools
A key output of PoshBee was the survey of beekeepers’ willingness to adopt a bee health card. In total, we surveyed over 470 beekeepers from seven countries. The findings reveal that beekeepers are more likely to adopt the tool if 1) there are monetary incentives to use it, 2) they believe it is easy to use and 3) they are confident in its effectiveness. Our findings have significant implications for future efforts to encourage good bee husbandry and health management.
If they were asked to pay any costs, beekeepers were much less likely to use the tool but they were more likely to use the tool if there were economic incentives (e.g. subsidies). When aiming to promote widespread bee health practices, subsidising the costs of these practices, at least initially, would greatly improve uptake and frequency of use. Similarly, efforts to make management options easy and convenient to use (e.g. through apps and analysis via posted samples) would also facilitate wider uptake.
Finally, effective communication of the usefulness of bee health tools and practices is key to encouraging uptake. Our analysis reveals that beekeepers associations (local and national) and other beekeepers are the main sources of information for beekeepers on bee health. Research and policy should therefore aim to disseminate information on the effectiveness of different practices to these associations as soon as they become available to support wider uptake.
PoshBee: Pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation Of Stressors on the Health of BEEs
Ongoing | 2018-2023
- Main funding source
- Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- United Kingdom