Objectives
The superordinate objective is the realisation of ecological and economical beekeeping for plant pollination and the production of high quality bee products.
A practical objective for apicultural counselling is: every beekeeper knows the Good Apicultrual Practice. Other objectives are: professional harvesting of honey and the maintainance of healthy bee colonies.
Procedure
The aim of the activity of the Swiss Bee Research Centre is to meet the expectations of practical beekeeping and of other important institutions and interest groups of the country. The Swiss Bee Research Centre carries out field and laboratory trials for practical application in beekeeping. Also, it collects scientific know-how by national and international networking.
In the article below, the typical activities of the members of the Swiss bee research center are described in detail.
Organisation on the Liebefeld Site
For many years after the founding of the Centre for Bee Research in 1907, ‘Liebefeld’ was the only institution in Switzerland dedicated exclusively to bee research. After the founding of the Bee Health Centre (BHC) in 2013 and the Institute for Bee Health (IBH) at the University of Bern (VetSuisse), responsibilities were redistributed. Since then, the CBR concentrates on applied research, remaining in close contact with the other units. The IBH deals with basic research and the training of veterinary-medicine and biology students at the University of Bern.The BHC supports the training and continuing education of the beekeepers, the dissemination of scientific findings, and the management of bee-colony poisoning incidents, in addition to running the beekeepers’ advice hotline. All three institutions are independent of one another at an organisational level, but work together at the Liebefeld site for the good of bees and beekeeping.
