Twelve colonies of five-framed Apis cerana F. with about equal brood, hive storage and colony strength were prepared in November 2004 and the colony development parameters recorded. One-third of the colonies absconded in summer and about one-sixth in rainy season, while non-absconded colonies also slowed comb building, brood rearing, colony strength and hive storage in summer and rainy seasons. Feeding sugar candy and pollen substitute prevented absconding in May and July. Three weeks feeding in May resulted higher comb building (15.0%), higher brood rearing (158.8%), stronger colony strength (15.0%) and higher hive storage (171.2% honey, 270.9% pollen) in June. Those colonies having higher brood mite (Varroa jacobsoni Oud.) in winter absconded earlier. Key words: Apis cerana, absconding, brood mite, pollen substitute, colony management J. Inst. Agric. Anim. Sci. 27:77-86 (2006)
Chalkbrood is a disease affecting honey bees that seriously impairs brood growth and productivity of diseased colonies. Although honey bees can develop chalkbrood resistance naturally, the details underlying the mechanisms of resistance are not fully understood, and no easy method is currently available for selecting and breeding resistant bees. Finding the genes involved in the development of resistance and identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that can be used as molecular markers of resistance is therefore a high priority. We conducted genome resequencing to compare resistant (Res) and susceptible (Sus) larvae that were selected following in vitro chalkbrood inoculation. Twelve genomic libraries, including 14.4 Gb of sequence data, were analysed using SNP-finding algorithms. Unique SNPs derived from chromosomes 2 and 11 were analysed in this study. SNPs from resistant individuals were confirmed by PCR and Sanger sequencing using in vitro reared larvae and resistant colonies. We found strong support for an association between the C allele at SNP C2587245T and chalkbrood resistance. SNP C2587245T may be useful as a genetic marker for the selection of chalkbrood resistance and high royal jelly production honey bee lines, thereby helping to minimize the negative effects of chalkbrood on managed honey bees.
Apis cerana is an endemic species of honey bee in Asia. A. cerana is believed to have better adaptation to scattered nectar sources than Apis mellifera , which implies that honey can be harvested from A. cerana colonies, but A. mellifera will starve at the same location. We hypothesize that there are differences in foraging performance, worker longevity, and daily sugar consumption between A. cerana and A. mellifera workers. These parameters in both species were determined. A. cerana had longer longevity than A. mellifera if longevity was measured in caged bees without pollen or in mixed species colonies with A. mellifera queens, but A. mellifera had much longer longevity when measured inside cages provided with pollen. A. cerana also had more foraging trips and higher proportion of foragers than A. mellifera in mixed colonies. The daily sugar consumption of A. cerana workers was 32% of that of A. mellifera , perhaps mainly due to the smaller biomass of A. cerana workers. In addition, A. cerana workers showed significantly lower variance in daily sugar consumption. In conclusion, A. cerana has more foraging trips, higher forager proportion, less sugar consumption, and longer survival than those of A. mellifera , when measured inside the same colonies. These differences might explain why during a dearth or in scattered resource areas, A. cerana can store or produce more honey than A. mellifera.
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of supplement diets on flight activities of cross breed honeybee (Apis mellifera Lin.) in Chitwan, Nepal. The experiment consisted of five replications and four feeding treatments: feeding low dose sugar (syrup of 166 g sugar); feeding high dose sugar (syrup of 333 g sugar); feeding modified diet (syrup of 166 g sugar + 30 g pollen substitute); and control (no diet supplement except 250 g sugar honey candy to prevent from starvation). Each hive (replication) consisted of five-framed A. mellifera colony, which were fed for six days with four days breaks in each feeding and altogether eleven feedings were provided. Sugar syrup feeding stimulated bee foragers flights by 908-987% out-going and 578-704% in-coming, respectively. Modified diet (low dose sugar syrup combined with pollen substitute) was suitable for off-season management of honeybee colonies, which supported high rate of flight activities i.e. 3.3 times out-going and 2.8 times in-coming as compared to the control colonies. Other treatments were intermediate types. The combined diet also showed higher flights than feeding low dose sugar syrup alone indicating necessity of feeding appropriate diet during off-season under Chitwan condition for good flight and foraging activities of honeybees. Key words: Pollen substitutes, sugar syrup/sugar-honey candy, out-going, in-coming, cross breed J. Inst. Agric. Anim. Sci. 26:71-76 (2005)
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