EFFECT OF ADDING SOME VEGETABLE OILS TO POLLEN SUBSTITUTES ON PALATABILITY AND PREFERENCE OF HONEY BEE, APIS MELLIFERA L. COLONIES. | ||
| Journal of Plant Protection and Pathology | ||
| Article 2, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2014, Pages 315-324 PDF (404.55 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jppp.2014.87920 | ||
| Author | ||
| A. M. Moustafa | ||
| Apiculture Department, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Little is known about which commercial vegetable oils could be used as an ingredient in improving artificial feedstuffs for honey bees. To test whether the oils are palatable or whether honey bees showed a preference, they were added at 1% and 2% concentration to pollen substitute known to be attractive to bees. Seven different vegetable oils, only linseed was consumed by bees at a significantly greater rate than others followed by almond and coconut. Other oils added to pollen substitute that had higher consumption rates by colonies than pollen substitute without oil were (highest to lowest): corn, Soybean, Palm and sunflower oils. Obtained results show the superiority of diet consumption for the workers which feed on pollen substitute containing linseed oil at 1 and 2% concentrations (109.43 and 110.11 mg), respectively over any all other oils and control. The percentages of deviation from control (without oil) (+ 68.43, 69.46), (+55.70, 57.27), (+ 55.37, 56.56), (+35.59, 36.78), (+26.20, 27.18), (+21.94, 23.03) and (+11.54, 11.98) were recorded in case of linseed, almond, coconut, corn, soybean, palm and sunflower oils at 1 and 2 % concentrations, respectively. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Honey bee; pollen substitute; vegetable oils; palatability | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 170 PDF Download: 748 |
||
