STUDIES ON THE RESISTANCE TO WINTERING OF THE ITALIAN BEES APIS MELLIFERA LIGUSTICA REARED IN ROMANIA

Abstract

The study was conducted on bee families of Apis mellifera carpatica and Apis mellifera ligustica breeds. The bees were housed in multi-storey hives. The experimental period was of 6 months. The resistance to wintering was evaluated on the basis of several apicultural indicators: mortality, feed intake during the winter, general state of the family. Mortality was 35% during wintering for the Carpathian bee and 52% for the Italian bee. The differences were very significant (p≤0.001). When wintering finished all bee families were in good strength. The general state of the bee family was as follows: the Carpathian bee had a strong family when wintering started and ended with a median power; it had a large number of young bees and sufficient reserves; no diarrhoea or mould were noticed; relative humidity was 74%. The Italian bee had a strong family when wintering started and ended with half of the power because of the high mortality during the winter; no diarrhoea or mould were noticed; relative humidity was 69%.

Keywords

• apis mellifera ligustica
• resistance of wintering