This project will delve deeper into the resilience of honeybees to diseases and pests. First of all, we will focus on resistance/tolerance to varroa mite disease. Various hereditary characteristics that play a role in this have already been described, such as hygienic behaviour or suppression of mite reproduction. In addition, resilience to virus infection will also be monitored. The aim is to roll out a selection strategy for Flemish beekeepers that is based on both phenotyping and genotyping of the colony. The consequences of this on the varroa infestation and virus load of the selected colonies will be monitored. In addition, we will focus on innovative selection strategies in which the health status of breeding queens is estimated based on the reactivity of the colony to artificial disturbance, such as an electromagnetic knock, short flashes of light or sound pulses. The latter ties in with the recent discovery of the research group that different vibrational signals are emitted depending on the health status of the colony.