Managed honey bee colonies face unprecedented threats from multiple stressors, with significant implications for both bee welfare and global food security through pollination services.
Honey bee welfare is complex: individual bees are sentient to some degree, and colony-level stress is associated with behavioral and physiological indicators of compromised wellbeing. Varroa mites cause pain through tissue feeding; pesticide exposure impairs cognition and causes disorientation; and inadequate forage creates nutritional stress. Welfare-conscious beekeeping manages Varroa effectively, avoids unnecessary colony splitting, provides supplemental nutrition during forage gaps, and minimizes the use of aggressive management techniques that cause colony disturbance.