{"id":295139,"date":"2026-07-14T04:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295139\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T04:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:34:09","slug":"uc-davis-study-finds-honeybee-queens-transfer-pesticides-to-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295139\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Davis study finds honeybee queens transfer pesticides to eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1140\" height=\"453\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784003649_168_Queen_1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"queen bee marked\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"attach_desc\">A honey bee queen surrounded by her retinue, which is an ever-changing group of worker bees charged with her care, feeding and protection. The fuchsia spot is applied to queen bees to make her easier to identify. (Sascha Nicklisch\/UC Davis)\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tpublished on July 13, 2026 &#8211; 4:19 PM<br \/>Written by <a href=\"https:\/\/thebusinessjournal.com\/byline\/frank-lopez\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Frank Lopez<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new University of California, Davis study has found that honeybee queens chronically exposed to pesticides can transfer those contaminants to their eggs, a process researchers call maternal offloading.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The discovery offers new insight into how pesticide exposure may continue affecting colonies long after the initial contamination.<\/p>\n<p>The research, <a href=\"https:\/\/cell.com\/current-biology\/retrieve\/pii\/S0960982226007335?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982226007335%3Fshowall%3Dtrue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">published in the journal <\/a>Current Biology, is the first to document maternal offloading in honeybees, according to the researchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The findings suggest pesticide residues may persist within a colony even after worker bees are no longer able to filter contaminants, creating potential long-term impacts on hive health.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the information could help beekeepers, growers and integrated pest management professionals better understand pesticide exposure during key periods such as foraging and colony expansion.<\/p>\n<p>California, particularly the Central Valley, depends on managed honeybee colonies to support the world\u2019s largest annual commercial pollination event \u2014 the almond bloom.<\/p>\n<p>The state relies on approximately 2.5 million to 2.8 million honeybee colonies each almond season, representing roughly 70% to 80% of all managed honeybee colonies in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>According to data cited from the Honey Bee Health Coalition and the American Bee Federation, commercial U.S. beekeepers lost an average of 62% of their colonies between June 2024 and March 2025, the highest level recorded.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-100899\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Queen_4-1.jpg\" alt=\"bee eggs\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\"  \/>Honey bee eggs in hive comb cells. (Sascha Nicklisch\/UC Davis)<\/p>\n<p>Ben Zentner, CEO of 559 Honey, said he has observed queens transferring contaminants to eggs during his years of beekeeping.<\/p>\n<p>Based in Kingsburg, Zentner provides pollination, hive management and honey production services throughout California.<\/p>\n<p>A queen bee can lay up to 1,500 eggs each day, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Zentner said pesticide exposure from neighboring farms remains a concern because bees can forage up to about 1.5 miles from their hives, increasing the possibility of exposure across property lines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a whole bunch of people that don\u2019t deal in ag and don\u2019t understand and there is also a whole lot of people who don\u2019t understand all that comes out of this valley,\u201d Zentner said.<\/p>\n<p>He said greater public awareness of the role honeybees play in California agriculture is essential because healthy pollinator populations are critical to crop production and the state\u2019s <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A honey bee queen surrounded by her retinue, which is an ever-changing group of worker bees charged with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-295139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}