Honey Bee Watch is a multi-year global citizen-science project to study the biological, behavioral, and environmental traits of survivorship of free-living honey bee colonies (as well as untreated hives in apiaries).

Its mission is to fill in the “data deficiency” status of honey bees as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List for Threatened Species, while simultaneously engaging citizens in a science-based initiative, thus increasing their awareness of and appreciation for the importance of honey bees.

Starting with Apis mellifera in Europe, Honey Bee Watch aims to expand its reach into other territories as well as include other Apis species, especially those inhabiting Asia.

Providing useful data to IUCN in order to potentially update the current Red List will pave a path towards improving sustainable beekeeping practices and conservation efforts in the wild.