Beekeeping and Hive Products Laboratory (BeeLab)

Head: Prof. Pier Paolo DANIELI

E-mail: danieli@unitus.it

BeeLab is an educational-experimental lab system aimed at supporting studies and researches in beekeeping, including precision beekeeping, and in the sector of animal products of the beehive such as honey, pollen, bee bread and other bee products. BeeLab is a “diffused laboratory”, having structures and instruments dedicated but also shared with the Nutritional Analysis and Contaminant Research Lab in Zootechnical Foods and Products of Animal Origin (head, Prof. Umberto BERNABUCCI). The laboratories and instrumental devices for compositional, biochemical and molecular analyses are located within the spaces of the former Faculty of Agriculture (DAFNE Department, Via S. Camillo s.n.c.), while the facilities for controlled lab trials with bees, apiary observational tests and beekeeping production are located in the structures and spaces of the Experimental Educational Agricultural Company “Nello Lupori”, of the University of Tuscia (Loc. Riello).

The main activities of the laboratory, which has been active since 2013, are the following:

• evaluation of methods and practices for sustainable beekeeping management (food supplementation, biomechanical control of hive enemies, etc.);
• development and validation of smart systems for precision beekeeping and diagnostics;
• characterization of the nutritional potential of protein and sugar sources for bees (compositional analysis, mineral profiling, laboratory tests in a controlled environment, field tests);
• bee feeding and nutrition;
• characterization and valorisation of the endemic subspecies Apis mellifera ligustica (Spin.);
• bee reproduction (natural, instrumental) and selective breeding;
• characterization of honey and other hive products for quality and traceability;
• environmental monitoring through hives as bioindicators and/or hive matrices (honey, pollen).