No abstract

www.eajbs.eg.net New applications for protecting honeybee, Apis mellifera L., colonies from attacking the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis Fab.

The activity of honey bee foragers in collecting of pollen, nectar or both from flowers of three plum, (prunus sp.) cultivars (cvs.) was investigated during the flowering season of two successive years,(2012 &2013) in plum orchard at El-kalubia Governorate, Egypt. In general, Hollywoodplum cultivar was significantly more attractant to bee foragers than Santarosa and Golden Japanese cvs. During two studied seasons. For all studied cultivars, honeybee workers worked on flowers throughout the day time with highest activity at 2 p.m. Highest percentage of pollen gatherers was recorded on flowers of Hollywood cultivar 37.7% & 35.4%, followed by Golden Japanese 29.9% & 28.2% then Santarosa flowers 26.1% & 27.4% during the two seasons, respectively. Activity of pollen collection was concentrated in the early time of day for all cultivars with the highest peak at 11 a.m., (mean of 40.9%), while the lowest value was 20.4%. In the other hand, Golden Japanese flowers were significantly attracted the nectar foragers than Santarosa and Hollywood flowers through the two seasons, (37.3% & 36.4%; 34.8% & 33.1% and 28.0% & 27.6% for the previous plum cultivars, respectively). Nectar gathering activity by honeybee from all plum cultivars was strongly concentrated in the second half of day time with a highest mean percentage (43.0%) at 2 p.m.The collection of both nectar and pollen in the same trip by one forager was also observed on the three studied plum cultivars during the two seasons of study. Santarosa flowers attained the first rank encouraging honeybee workers for gathering the both types of food, (39.3%) followed by (35.6%) for Hollywood and (34.2%) for Golden Japanese, (as a mean of two seasons). The more favorite time for this activity pattern is early morning, (44.3%) or late afternoon, (41.8%) with no significant difference between them as a mean of two successive seasons.

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Different activities of Apis mellifera lamarckii were studied under Siwa Oasis climatic conditions. Results obtained indicated main peak of worker brood activity this main peak was recorded at the onset of May (140 inch 2 /colony) in 1 st. year .while in the 2 nd. year the main peak was recorded at the onset of April (135.9 inch 2 /colony). The brood drone has main peak (15.66 and 21.1 inch 2 /colony) in March over the two years of study. The mean pollen stored areas measured was 18.3 inch 2 /colony in Jun of 1 st. year and 12.3 inch 2 /colony in November of the 2 nd. ones . Maximum numbers of queen cells were recorded during February. and March (34.5 & 38.5 cells/col., respectively) in the 1 st. year and they were (29 & 27.85 cells/col, respectively) in 2 nd. ones. The maximum area measured of stored honey was (119.8 inch 2 /colony) during June in the 1 st. year and in the 2 nd. ones it was (129 inch 2 /colony) during July. a significant positive correlations was found between stored pollen and the rate of rearing worker brood during the two years of study, (0.188 & 0.553). A positive correlation between air temperature and the amount of stored pollen were, also, found during the two years, (0.414 & 0.013). The obtained results revealed that the Siwa Oasis was profitable for rearing and propagating Apis mellifera lamarckii.