Interrelation ship between honey bee workers activity and artificial foods

Abstract

This study was conducted in March 2015 during seasonal period; spring, early summer, late summer and autumn respectively at the apiary of the Grdarasha research station of Agriculture College, Salahaddin University - Erbil / Kurdistan Region- Iraq. The result showed that the highest numbers of workers prefer fed on dry yeast was 529.000 workers inside the hives and 252.333 workers outside the hives. The highest average age of longevity was 31.5 days when fed on dry yeast and the lowest average was 26.0 days fed on bean. The highest percentage of protein content in workers body was 48.922% fed with dry yeast and the lowest was 40.915% fed with bean. The workers fed on dry yeast gave the higher resistant to cooling at 15ºC for 14 days, at 12ºC for 11days at 8ºC for 8 days and at 4ºC 6 days for both dry yeast and broad bean. The workers fed with bean and sugar solution gave the lower resistant to cooling at 15ºC for 11 days, at 12ºC for 10 days, at 8ºC for 6 days, at 4ºC for 5 days. The highest average of body weights of mature larvae fed on dry yeast was 106.20 mg but the lowest was 79.45 mg fed on bean in spring season. The highest body weight of ten day old workers was 121.15 mg fed on broad bean and the lowest was 102.95 fed on bean in spring season.

Keywords

• honey bee
• Supplementary food
• activity
• worker bee.