But the importance of having the best possible bees for pollination and honey production is indisputable.

“New Zealand’s sheep and cattle breeding industries have made enormous gains by selective breeding. They keep bringing out new genomic tools to improve the way they do it. I thought it was about time to do the same for bees because of the value of the honey industry – mānuka in particular.”

The multidisciplinary FutureBees team includes biomathematicians, insect scientists, ecologists, bee breeders and honey producers from around the country.

“The point isn’t to set up a bee breeding programme that we continue to run, but to give beekeepers the tools to do it themselves. After 5 years we plan to have done the hard bits and produced a useful decision-making tool.”

Peter envisions that each year beekeepers would sample a hive, get the genomes sequenced (current cost is about $40 per bee), then dial up a new queen bee to improve the genetics of their hives.

“We’re putting in a very technical programme but that needs to sit behind a simple, accessible, mobile interface – most beekeepers didn’t go into the industry to sit behind a computer.”

The direction of the programme is guided by beekeepers around what they value, like honey production and disease resistance. Remote monitoring tools are of great interest because hives are usually dotted around a region and visited about once a month.

“Tools like the weight of a hive and bee activity can provide up-to-date data on how the hive is doing. If there’s a problem you’ll know about it straight away, so that’s an immediate productivity benefit.”

The really clever bit is taking that information and other environmental data (like weather conditions) and linking it to hive genetics using statistical methods.

“We imagine FutureBees will also create demand for new queens and grow that industry, but with better control over the genetics.”

The team’s research to date has found that New Zealand bees have good genetic diversity and that no particular traits are needed for bees to be good pollinators over honey producers.

“We do need to worry very much about inbreeding. Improving bee stocks and maintaining genetic variation are absolutely opposed, so we have to manage that. But bees move around, so your breeding actually improves those in an entire area.”

Peter says working closely with communities and end users is a vital part of the programme. He has some advice for all scientists.

“If you want to have an impact, make sure you’re talking with the right people and doing a lot of listening. I’ve been working with beekeepers since 2004 and am more and more impressed with their remarkable knowledge and skill. Science is very good at ignoring all of that. I hope we’re now starting to show that we have some skills and technologies that could help them.”