Queen excluders enhance honey production in African honey bees, Apis mellifera, by limiting brood rearing during peak nectar flow
| Autor: | Ahmed A. Al-Ghamdi, Mebrat Hailu, Mohammad Javed Ansari, H. Randall Hepburn, Nuru Adgaba, Awraris Getachew Shenkute, Sarah E. Radloff |
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| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
education.field_of_study
biology digestive oral and skin physiology fungi Population Brood comb food and beverages biology.organism_classification Brood law.invention Worker bee Honey bee life cycle Horticulture Queen excluder law Insect Science Botany behavior and behavior mechanisms Queen (butterfly) Nectar education reproductive and urinary physiology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Apicultural Research. 52:184-189 |
| ISSN: | 2078-6913 0021-8839 |
| DOI: | 10.3896/ibra.1.52.5.02 |
| Popis: | SummaryUnlike honey bees in temperate regions, those in tropical Africa exhibit a strong tendency towards continuous brood rearing rather than storing honey, which is a behaviour that lowers both the productivity and commercial value of African bees. In this study, the possibility of maintaining a balance in resource allocation between brood rearing and honey storage was assessed. Twelve colonies were examined, half of which were fitted with queen excluders three weeks before an expected honey harvest, while half were used as controls. Data on the honey yields and brood populations of the colonies were collected during four flowering seasons over a two-year period. The mean brood populations of all of the colonies did not differ significantly when the queen excluders were inserted into the six treatment colonies. However, at honey harvest, three weeks later, there was a highly significant difference in the mean brood population between the treatment and control groups. Colonies without queen excluders con... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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