Apinverno and Melior'api: a continuous Italian-French collaboration

The health crisis of the past years has slowed down the opportunities for beekeepers and experts in the apiculture sector to meet and delve into issues and challenges of beekeeping.

The Apinverno and Melior'api projects represent opportunities to restart this mode of exchange of knowledge and expertise. The international collaboration took place involving various French and Italian stakeholders - academics and researchers, apicultural technicians, and beekeepers - in technical meetings held directly in the field to strengthen and expand cross-border collaboration in beekeeping initiated during the previous Innov'Api project.

Projects partners

The projects involve bee experts to ensure knowledge and group dynamics that allow activities to be carried out in the best possible way.

There are both French and Italian partners:

• INRAE (public research institute on Agriculture, Food and Environment, coordinator)

• UNITO - DISAFA (Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences, University of Turin)

• UNAAPI (National Union of Italian Beekeeping Associations)

• ADAPI (Association for the Development of Beekeeping in Provence)

Apinverno Activities

During the Apinverno project, a simplified protocol for the management and control of Varroa destructor in overwintering beehives was adopted. Various scenarios were evaluated, including the overwintering location (mountain or plain) and Varroa treatment (queen caging), then assessing the importance of hygienic control for each hive.

The Apinverno project builds on the studies carried out during Innov’api, putting them into practice through experiments and concrete actions for Varroa management.

The activities, specifically, will address:

• the role of the winter period in health management,

• the effect of good Varroa management in winter on viral load,

• the ability to use hive hygienic properties at the beginning of winter as a guide for beekeeping management at the beginning of the season

Melior'api Activities

The Melior’Api project aims to provide beekeepers with an experimental solution supported by a dedicated application, with the goal of improving colony quality and strengthening the skills, adaptability, productivity, and autonomy of beekeeping operations. This objective builds on the partners’ consolidated experience gained through the previous ALCOTRA projects Innov’Api (2017–2021) and Apinverno (2022–2024). With a 1999524,41€ of funding from the European Union (INRAE: 753 684,41€, UNITO: 455 000,00€; ADAPI: 315 840,00€; UNAAPI: 475 000,00€), Melior'api intends to improve the beekeeping sector and strenghten collaborations.

The project focuses on developing a colony improvement procedure based on the selection of colonies with the highest performance, assessed in terms of productivity, tolerance to the Varroa mite, control of viral loads, colony quality in autumn, and the ability to overwinter successfully under good conditions. The core innovation lies in the creation of a multicriteria indicator designed to support beekeepers in identifying the most suitable colonies for renewing part of their stock.

This multicriteria approach overcomes the limitations of evaluations based on single performance traits, offering a more comprehensive assessment of colony quality. In this context, the project aims to provide a software solution that helps beekeepers design effective strategies for improving their operations.

Finally, in addition to technological innovation related to the software and fertilization methods, the project also takes into account contextual factors that may influence colony selection processes, including pesticide exposure and risk to bees.