Q: What was the inspiration behind this project?

López-Uribe: We are working on generating scientific evidence that can support changes in regulation for organic beekeeping. The prevailing assumption is that bees forage very large distances out of the colony to bring pollen and nectar back, which implies they’re getting pollen and nectar that may be contaminated by pesticides. But our working hypothesis for this project is that honeybees, like most animals, are optimal foragers, so if you give them really high-quality food very close to the colony, they will forage really close to the colony. We chose large organic farms in Pennsylvania and New York that are surrounded by forests and have minimal agricultural pesticides nearby. And we are trying to figure out ways to monitor how far the bees were flying.

Q: Using QR codes? 

López-Uribe: The QR codes were a great idea because you can just print thousands of them and they store the right amount of information that we need to monitor the in-and-out behavior of bees in the colony. The tags are read by cameras that we placed right in front of the hives and that are attached to little computers, so we could tell which bees were coming in and going out of the colony and the duration of their flights. We connected the computers to local Wi-Fis. This was important, because our interest in this project was to understand foraging behavior in real-life situations for the bees.

Q: How many bees did you tag?

López-Uribe: I think we marked 32,000 bees during 2024. We started the project last March and went all the way to September-October.

Q: What has the data shown you?

López-Uribe: One of the really cool things we saw is that some of the foragers were foraging for four, five, and even six weeks—when a lot of the literature indicates that bees tend to only live for about four weeks. We also learned that most of the foraging trips are really short: 60% lasted five minutes or less.

Q: Your project is interdisciplinary, bringing together biologists and engineers.

López-Uribe: Yes, it speaks to the power of collaboration. Biologists use the scientific method, engineers are problem-solvers. It took them a while to understand that bees are living organisms, and it was only when we went to their lab that we understood things from their side. I would like to give a shoutout to the team who made this project possible. 

Margarita López-Uribe is the Lorenzo Langstroth Early Career Professor of Entomology.