STUDIES ON BROOD SURVIVAL RATE AND FORAGING BEHAVIOUR OF APIS MELLIFERA L. ON MUSTARD
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Date
2021
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DRPCAU, PUSA
Abstract
The experiment on “Studies on brood survival rate and foraging behaviour of
Apis mellifera L. on mustard” were carried out at University Apiary, RPCAU, Pusa
during the rabi 2020-21. Objectives of this experiment were to determine the brood
survival rate in the existing A. mellifera population, study the impact of brood
survival rate on behavioural, economic and resistant traits of A. mellifera and to study
the foraging behaviour of A. mellifera L. on mustard.
The obtained results showed that out of 10 colonies used for research 1 colony
showed low brood survival rate, 3 colonies witnessed medium brood survival rate and
6 colonies showed high brood survival rate. Excellent, medium and poor brood
pattern was found in 7, 2 and 1 colonies respectively in the experiment on scattered
brood pattern.
The obtained data on bee activity showed that colony no. 9 having lowest
number of outgoing bees with average 9 bees / minute. Highest outgoing bees were
recorded in colony no. 3 with average 12.11 bees / minute. In case of incoming bees
colony no. 5 having the highest value with average 11.78 incoming bee and colony
number 9 having the less value with average 8.56 of bees came back to the hive.
Total honey content was maximum in colony no. 5 with 394.94 g and lowest
in colony no. 9 having only 249.86 g of honey. For pollen content the same trend was
followed as colony no. 5 having maximum area of pollen of 36.13 cm2 and lowest in
colony no. 9 with total area of 25.16 cm2 pollen.
The obtained results of hygienic behaviour showed that colony no. 3 having
100 per cent efficiency while colony no. 9 having lowest efficiency of 76%.
The duration of foraging of Apis mellifera was experimented out and it was
noticed that the mean time of initiation time of foraging was at 7:28 am and mean
cessation time of foraging time was 16.45 pm. The mean duration of foraging was
9.17 hours for all 10 colonies. It was noticed that duration of foraging kept increasing
as the blooming period progressed. The foraging rate of A. mellifera was also
calculated during different day hours and the studies shows that mean rate of foraging
was highest during 15:00 hours of the day which was 19 flowers/ min while the
lowest foraging rate was 0.24 flowers/ min during 07:00 hours. Foraging speed of A.
mellifera was maximum during 09:00 hours of the day which was 2.94 sec/ flower
and on the other side the lowest value was 1.13 sec/ flower obtained during 07:00
hours of the day.
Population dynamics of A. mellifera on mustard bloom was recorded during
the whole flowering period and it was correlated with average minimum temperature,
average maximum temperature, average temperature, average relative humidity (RH)
at morning hours, average RH at evening hour, average RH and with total rainfall, the
obtained results showed that average maximum temperature(ºC) and average
temperature(ºC) showed positive and strong correlation with significant effect while
average minimum temperature(ºC) showed positive correlation with significant effect
on bee population( r = 0.93**, 0.94** and 0.76*) On the other side average morning
relative humidity(%) and average relative humidity(%) showed negative correlation
with significant effect while average evening humidity showed negative but nonsignificant
effect on bee population on mustard bloom( r= -0.70*, . -0.64* and -0.18).
There was no rainfall was recorded during the whole experiment so no correlation
was found between total rainfall (mm) and bee population. However all the weather
parameters influenced 86 % bee population (R2 = 0.86).