Effect of Pollen Supplements on Brood Rearing and Foraging Activity of Indian Honey Bee (Apis cerana Fab.)

摘要

Observations of brood area revealed that there was consitently significant increase in area under egg, larvae and pupae in the supplement fed colonies as compared to unfed colonies. The egg area increased from 450 to 573 cm~2 and 460 to 559 cm~2, larval area from 460 to 492 cm~2 and 473 to 483 cm~2, pupal area from 363 to 444 cm~2 and 370 to 443 cm~2 respectively in the colonies fed with supplement A and B for 40 days. The control colonies showed a decline in the individual brood area. The total brood area increase in 60 days was 18.8 and 13.6 per cent with respect to supplement A and B, respectively, the mean incoming nectar andpollen forage number per 15 minute in the colonies increased from 18.5 to 24.3 and 18.1 to 23.0 corresponding to supplement A and B. Whereas, in the unfed colonies the above figures reduced from 18 to 14 and 20 to 16 during 40 days of trial. The major and minor peak period of nectar foraging was 1200and 1600 hours, whereas pollen foraging peaks were at 1000 and 1700 hours,respectively.