Abstract

VALLENAS-SANCHEZ, Yhann; HONORIO-JAVES, Cesar Eduardo; VALDIVIA-CAMARGO, Víctor  and  RODRIGUEZ-SOTO, Juan Carlos. Effect of protein supplement on the posture and population of commercial honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony located in landscape polyfloral. Cienc. Tecnol. Agropecuaria [online]. 2023, vol.24, n.2, e3058.  Epub Aug 31, 2023. ISSN 0122-8706.  https://doi.org/10.21930/rcta.vol24_num2_art:3058.

Climate change and the loss of natural habitat reduce the amount and diversity of pollen, contributing to bee malnutrition, which leads to lower posture, decreased bee population and low productive performance. Faced with this reality, artificial diets are used in order to reduce the negative impact of pollen scarcity. In the present study, 16 colonies of commercial bees (Apis mellifera) installed in polyfloral landscape were chosen. These colonies received two treatments (T0: without protein supplement and T1: with Prosise ® protein supplement). Both treatments received sugar syrup as a stimulant (1kg sugar/1kg of water) and two strips of Wangs ®, with 40mg of tau fluvalinate per strip as a preventive against varroasis. The use of the protein supplement increased significantly (p<0.01) the number of frames with brood (11.88 ± 0.83) and population of bees (31297.50 ± 2779.30) compared to the colonies that were not supplemented (9.88 ± 1.13) and (22230.00 ± 2143.70) respectively. Our results indicate that Prosise ® increases the breeding and population of commercial bee colonies in polyfloral landscape. In addition, it is recommended to evaluate digestibility, shelf life, the effect on honey production, pollen collection. In addition, for greater precision in the formulation of the diet, it is advisable to evaluate the nutritional contribution of the available pollen and cover the deficiencies with the artificial diet. However, it is more complicated to carry out in polyfloral landscapes than in monofloral ones.

Keywords : beekeeping; Apis mellifera; bee; bee feeding; supplementary feeding; nutrition; artificial diet.

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