This project aims to enhance the understanding of floral resource use by honey bees in Danish landscapes, and to investigate options for optimizing the availability of resources (pollen and nectar) through the location and density of bee colonies.

The project seeks to gain advanced knowledge about floral resource use and availability in Danish landscapes and to investigate the potential for optimizing the location and number of bee colonies. The project is financially supported by the National Beekeeping funding programme (The Danish Agricultural Agency and EU).

BFOOD-DK includes three overall objectives:

• To quantify the amount of food resources (pollen and nectar) in Danish landscape types, taking into account spatial and temporal variation in flowering
• Investigate whether current densities and locations of bee families can be improved, and to investigate the carrying capacity for the density of bee families in selected landscapes in Denmark
• Involve beekeepers from all over Denmark for field data collection, as well as educating them about the resource requirements of the bees, importance of the diet to bee health, as well as the carrying capacity of honey bees in different types of Danish landscapes

BFOOD-DK supports securing the future of beekeeping and pollination in Denmark by maintaining healthy Danish bees and working towards ensuring a continuous food supply for the bees in the agricultural and cultural landscape, as well as supporting bee health by continuous education of beekeepers in Denmark (the Danish Beekeeping Strategy for 2016-2019). The project will investigate the potential for increasing nectar and pollen availability for honeybees in Danish landscapes, as well as involving and thus informing beekeepers about key food plants and - habitats/plant communities to optimize honey bee foraging and health.

BFOOD-DK will generate new and more precise knowledge about the food supply of honey bees  in different Danish landscapes, and how the location and number of hives can be optimized. Honey bee diet includes the total quantity and composition of flower resources, and is crucial for the health and survival of bees. However, improving or optimizing food supply at the landscape level is a complex issue, as the bees use different sources of pollen and nectar, and the occurrence of different types of flowers varies in time and space. The project will collect and synthesize new and existing data about floral diet of honeybees and investigate opportunities for optimization. Beekeepers will be involved in the work for data collection, both to training the beekeepers in bee nutrition, and to validate the results of the project. The project therefore also contributes to networking and knowledge exchange between beekeepers and beekeeping organizations from different parts of the country.