Impact of Bee Venom Collector Equipment Positions on The Productivity of Venom Extracted from Carniolan, Buckfast, and Italian Honeybee Hybrids in Upper Egypt

Abstract

The honeybee venom productivity was evaluated between three honeybee hybrids i.e. Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica), Buckfast (Apis mellifera buckfast) and Italian (Apis mellifera ligustica) during 2022 summer season in Assiut area, Upper Egypt. Bee venom was extracted from colonies using bee venom collecting equipment with an electronic impulse generator for colony stimulation. The efficiency of three positions of venom collector trap namely, front drawer venom trap (FDVT), bottom brood nest venom trap (BBNVT) and above brood nest venom traps (ABNVT) were evaluated. The Carniolan bees showed a non-significant amount of produced venom compared with Buckfast. However, it showed a highly significant venom amount when compared with the Italian hybrid. The obtained data indicated that in the case of using ABNVT, a significantly high amount of bee venom was collected (2.30, 2.00, 1.78 g/colony/day) followed by FDVT with, (1.97, 1.88, 1.52 g/colony/day) while BBNVT, enables bees to collect the lowest amount of venom (1.03. 0.95, 0.64 g/colony) by Carniolan, Buckfast and Italian honeybee colonies, respectively. The highest amount of bee venom collected during summer season was recorded between 10-20 July and followed by 17-31 August. However, the lowest amount of bee venom collected by the traps was recorded during the first two weeks of September for all tested honeybee hybrids. In conclusion, reliance on Carniolan and Buckfast hybrid bees may meet the requirements of beekeepers to produce satisfied quantities of bee venom with a distinct preference for using pollen traps above the brood nest to enhance venom production.