The demand for monofloral, original, and special (functional) kinds of honey, or those with geographical indication, is forecast. At the same time, there is a need to improve the methods for determining the botanical and geographical origin of honey. The purpose of the research was to select and apply a variety of techniques for identifying the botanical origin of honey for its correspondence to acacia species. Samples of honey from the Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro regions extracted in the spring and summer period were used in the research. Organoleptic, physicochemical, NMR spectrometry, and advanced melissopalynology methods were applied. The tests were carried out at the laboratories of the Department of Certification and Standardization of Agricultural Products, NULES, Ukraine; the Ukrainian Laboratory of Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products; and the Bruker BioSpin GmbH company (Germany). According to the research results, the requirements for acacia honey were met by the organoleptic method for samples B1 and B2; by the physicochemical method for A0 and A2; by NMR spectroscopy for not a single sample, all being assessed as polyfloral; and by pollen analysis for B1 and B2. The conducted studies confirm the need for a comprehensive approach to the identification of the botanical origin of honey for its conformity to acacia species. There is a need to review the physicochemical indicators for the compliance of honey with the acacia species obtained in Ukraine. After all, even the modern NMR spectrometry technique indicated that the specially fabricated sample that did not contain acacia pollen grains was acacia honey. Identification of the botanical origin of monofloral honey, in particular acacia, should be carried out in the following sequence: pollen analysis (by dominant pollen grains), safety (presence of antibiotics, pesticides), physicochemical parameters according to international requirements, organoleptic parameters.
Over the last decades, the number of honey bee colonies in the world has been declining. A honey bee is the most important pollinator in agriculture. According to estimates, such a situation can threaten the food security of humanity. The purpose was to investigate the specific aspects of the managed honey bee population in Zhytomyr region. The population dynamics, number, and density were determined. For this purpose the statistics of the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on the number of bee colonies by categories of producers in Ukraine and Zhytomyr region were used. It was established that in Zhytomyr region over the past quarter century, the population of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) has increased by 2 times up to 193.4 thousand colonies. During the same period, the number of bee colonies in Ukraine has increased by 1.4 times. At present, Zhytomyr region is a leader in the state in the development of the beekeeping industry. Eight percent of all honey bee colonies in the country are concentrated here. In the Zhytomyr region, the density of honey bee population is one of the highest in Ukraine. 82 colonies are concentrated here on one conditional pasture area (1256 hectares), with 7 colonies per 100 hectares of land. In Ukraine, these indicators are 52 and 4 respectively. The distribution of bee colonies in the region is uneven. The vast majority of colonies (58.5%) are concentrated in the Polissia. There are from 1 to 18 colonies per 100 hectares of land in each of the units in the region, on the conditional pasture area from 16 to 224. The results of these studies are relevant for the commodity apiaries for the rational use of honey flow and to make a well-considered decision on the prospect of increasing the number of bee colonies. Further work will be aimed at the investigation into the melliferous base and the calculation of the feed balance of the beekeeping industry in Zhytomyr region.
Honey is used in the food industry as a natural sweetener and has therapeutic effects on the human body. Obtaining quality honey involves using organic preventive and treatment agents in beekeeping. The most common of these agents are probiotic supplements. This research aimed to study honey’s interaction with an inhibitory effect on the growth of microorganisms from the probiotic supplement Immunobacterin-D under laboratory and experimental field conditions. At the first stage of the research, we assessed the effects of ten honey varieties (buckwheat, sunflower, meadow and forest plants, linden) on B. subtilis and B. licheniformis from the dry probiotic supplement. The honey-containing nutrient media had an inhibitory effect on the growth of B. subtilis colonies. After 24 hours of cultivation under aerobic conditions, the concentration of B. subtilis decreased, on average, from 5×1012 colony-forming units in 1 g to 3.2×104 and 2.1×105 CFU/g in samples with monofloral and polyfloral honey, respectively. These results emphasize the need for further research on the symbiotic role of microflora in the stability of the microbiota of the hive and bee colony ecosystem. The next stage of the study investigated the probiotic effect on bee colonies in the field. Observations were made on the sanitary conditions of the hives and the behaviour of bees at the Petrodolyna demo apiary. No differences were found at the macro hive-bee colony ecosystem level between control bee colonies (n = 5) and the experimental ones (n = 5) that had received carbohydrate feeding with added probiotics. This confirms the inhibitory effect of honey on the development of bacteria, which eliminates the risk of uncontrolled growth of B. subtilis and B. licheniformis strain colonies inside the hive and the bacteria getting into bee products. The probiotic had positive effects, increasing the live weight of worker bees by 9.15% by the end of the apiary season compared to the control. This can improve the viability of the bees during wintering. At the last stage of the research, the honey obtained from the experimental colonies was checked for the spores of B. subtilis and B. licheniformis using melissopalynology.
Varoatosis is the most dangerous disease of bees. A number of synthetic preparations are used for its treatment. In organic beekeeping they are forbidden; and the search for new effective acaricides, which are not toxic to bees and do not contaminate bee products, is highly relevant. Therefore, our purpose was to investigate the effectiveness of using natural spruce extract to fight against varroatosis at an organic apiary. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of using natural spruce extract and formic acid extract to combat varroatosis in 24 bee families (12 each the group). The preparations were administered according to the guidelines once in the spring and once in the autumn. In the course of the study, a number of indicators were evaluated such as spring and autumn mite infestation, the strengthening and weakening of families, honey and wax productivity, the percentage of families that died (lost their queen bee) during the winter. The results of our investigation show that natural spruce extract effectively controls the varroa mite. This is confirmed by the significant difference in mite infestation between the groups treated with formic acid and spruce extract. This indicator was lower in bee families treated with spruce extract. After the spring treatment, the difference was 3 times (p=0.05), before autumn and spring next year it was 1.2 (p=0.01). When spruce extract was applied, the bee families had by 1.2 times higher honey productivity and by 1.4 higher wax productivity. Therefore, it is advisable to use this anti-varroatosis preparation in organic beekeeping. We recommend administering preparations in the spring after the first flying rout and at the end of August, adding 15 ml per 1 liter of sugar syrup (90 ml/family).
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