Use Supplementary Feedings on Bee Colony Development and Venom Production

Abstract

The paper presents the influence of the use of supplementary feedings on the development of bee colonies and venom production. We evaluated the venom production during harvests of rapeseed, acacia and sunflower. The research was carried out in the apiary of the Faculty of Bioengineering of Animal Resources within the ULST. The biological material was represented by 40 colonies of bees (Apis mellifera carpatica), divided into 8 experimental groups, each group consisting of 5 colonies with equal strength and a queen of the same age. During the spring, bee colonies were fed sugar syrup into which we introduced probiotic products and/or essential oils. Counting of brood cells was performed at 7, 14 and 21 days during supplementary feeding. At the end of the additional feeding period, as well as during rapeseed, acacia and sunflower harvests, venom was collected using the BeeWhisper v.5.1 venom collector, model 2016. Regarding venom production, the best results were observed in the case of additional feedings with the products used. Batches using Colobiotic (2.2 g venom), Oregano essential oil (2.1 g venom) and Lacium (2.1 g venom) had the highest amounts of venom.

Keywords

• bee colonies
• brood
• supplementary feeding
• venom production