BEEINFORMED

Kelly Inae and Dr Chris Cannizzaro sampling hives in Goroka PNG.

THE study, led by agronomy and sustainability manager at Macadamia Farm Management, Dr Chris Cannizzaro, analysed samples from 24 hives in Papua New Guinea and found that more diverse landscapes support a more complete and balanced diet for honey bees. Dr Cannizzaro said the findings reveal an important gap in how we understand bee nutrition.

“Like us, bees rely on a range of foods for a balanced diet,” Dr Cannizzaro said.

“The more diversity they have, the better chance they have of achieving balanced nutrition.”

Published in Frontiers in Bee Science, the study — Floral diversity in tropical landscapes affects fatty acid composition in bee bread — was authored by Dr Cannizzaro, along with Peter Brooks, Raywin Ovah, Kelly Inae, Rachele Wilson, Wiebke Kämper, Ido Bar, Alison Shapcott and Helen Wallace.

Bee bread is a key food source for bee colonies, feeding both larvae and adult bees and providing a mix of energy, proteins and fatty acids.

The research compared fatty acid profiles in bee bread from hives in tropical landscapes with and without forest.

Top left: Professor Helen Wallace and Dr Chris Cannizzaro in Goroka, PNG with sampling hive frame. Left: Frame of diverse pollen sources, Eastern Highlands of PNG.

Across all samples, bee bread contained a mix of saturated and unsaturated fats. Omega-6 and omega-9 were most common, while omega-3 levels were relatively low.

Forested areas were linked to higher levels of fatty acids such as myristic, palmitoleic and stearic acids, which support immune function and wax production. Non-forested landscapes showed higher levels of lauric acid, which may help with disease resistance.

Rather than one landscape being better than another, the findings suggest that different environments contribute different nutritional benefits, with overall diet quality improving when bees can draw from a wider range of plants.

“We found that relative concentrations of Omega-3 fatty acids were very low across all sites regardless of whether the landscape was with or without forest cover, which highly contrasts what you typically see in temperate environments,” Dr Cannizzaro said.

This suggests tropical floral resources may naturally produce a different fatty acid balance, shaped by the plant species available across the landscape, highlighting the importance of access to a higher diversity of flora to meet similar needs for honeybees in temperate landscapes.

For bees, fats are not just an energy source. Fatty acids play an important role in growth, immunity, cell function, wax production and overall colony resilience.

“When bees can access a mix of flowering plants across the landscape, they’re better able to meet their nutritional needs,Dr Cannizzaro said ”

For farmers, the findings highlight the value of managing floral diversity within and around crops.

“It comes down to creating more floral diversity in a very practical way,” Dr Cannizzaro said.

“Bees will always forage widely, so the question is whether your agricultural enterprise is supporting that movement in a way that benefits both bees and pollination.”

In many agricultural systems, simplified or monoculture landscapes can limit how effectively bees move between resources, which can reduce the consistency of pollination across crops.

“As a macadamia farmer who is heavily reliant on cross-pollination, this research changes how I think about pollination,” Dr Cannizzaro said.

Dr Cannizzaro oversees more than 5,500 hectares of macadamias pollinated through a combination of managed honey bees and native stingless bees.

“At Macadamia Farm Management, we manage thousands of hives across our orchards, so there’s always discussion around what other floral resources are present in and around the farm, and how that interacts with crop flowering.

“In reality, bees will always seek out a diversity of plants, whether that’s within the crop or further afield. But having that diversity closer to the orchards can help keep foraging activity focused and moving between trees during pollination.

“So, whether that diversity is within the farm or in the surrounding landscape, the key point is that more varied flowering resources generally support better outcomes for bees and pollination.”

The study identified more than 80 plant types in bee bread samples, including trees, herbaceous plants and ferns, highlighting just how varied a bee’s diet can be.

Dr Cannizzaro is a member of the Bee Friendly Farming program, which supports farmers and land managers to improve pollinator health through habitat and floral diversity on farm.

He has been involved since Macadamia Farm Management’s properties were first certified in 2022, helping expand certification across additional orchards and support habitat restoration within production landscapes. In 2024, he and his team planted 5,536 trees across three orchards in Bundaberg, Queensland, supported in part through a Bee Friendly Farming Tree Grant.

More information Learn more about Dr Cannizzaro and Bee Friendly Farming here.

About the research

Cannizzaro C, Brooks P, Ovah R, Inae K, Wilson R, Kämper W, Bar I, Shapcott A and Wallace HM (2026) Floral diversity in tropical landscapes affects fatty acid composition in bee bread. Front. Bee Sci. 4:1773714. www.doi.org/10.3389/ frbee.2026.1773714

This article was originally published by the Wheen Bee Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation working to protect Australia’s bees and other pollinators through a range of programs, including the Bee Friendly Farming program, which supports farmers and land managers to create and maintain pollinator-friendly habitat through practical on-farm actions. Learn more here.