Honey has been a popular food with known health benefits since ancient times. The benefits of beekeeping extend to honey production, as honeybees are important pollinators and are crucial for the sustainability of our current food systems. Despite all these benefits, the number of honeybee colonies is currently decreasing as the hives are affected by diseases of known and unknown origin. Beekeeping represents a traditional form of agriculture with relatively low inclusion of technology, despite recent technological developments aiming to improve the beehives’ management and the processing of multiple bee products in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Honeybees, Bee Products and Sustainable Agriculture provides an overview of the history and biology of honeybees and beekeeping plus current hive management practices and new trends such as sensors and urban beekeeping. The text addresses the main biotic and abiotic pathologies affecting beehives, together with the currently approved pharmacological treatments and new natural alternatives with demonstrated efficiency. The chapters analyze the main processes of production of all products derived from the beehives including honey, royal jelly, propolis, wax, pollen, bee bread, bee venom, bee larvae and more, together with their composition and health claims for their use as functional foods, pharmaceutical or cosmetic products and other industries. The book addresses current challenges of adulteration of bee products and recent strategies and analyses contributing to the authentication of bee products and provides evidence of both the positive and negative impacts of beekeeping on the sustainability of the food sector and on the biodiversity of wild populations of bees.

Dr. Marco Garcia-Vaquero is Director of the Food Science program at University College Dublin and a member of the Dublin Beekeeping Association