ACACIA WHITE AS A FEED RESOURCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEE FAMILIES

Abstract

The article presents the results of the research on the study of honey harvest conditions from white acacia and the possibility of their use by bee families of the Ukrainian steppe spawned in Vinnytsia region of the Forest-Steppe zone of Ukraine. It has established that the nectar productivity of acacia depends on weather conditions, the productivity of bee colonies on its strength, forage reserves and nectar productivity of honeybees. The aim of the work was to study the productive honey harvest from white acacia by bee families of the Ukrainian steppe breed in the apiaries of Svitanok-Agrosvit LLC, Bershad district, Vinnytsia region. Honey harvest conditions are represented by agricultural entomophilous honeysuckle and plants of forests, gardens, meadows, fields. Honey acacia, linden and sunflower honey harvests are productive. Honey productivity of bee families from white acacia averaged 9.7 kg, from linden - 3.1 kg more, sunflower - 15.6 kg more. The development of bee colonies is determined by the timing of flowering nectar-bearing plants and temperature. Prior to the flowering of white acacia, the families underwent a period of intensive growth, and during the honey harvest, the strength of the families increased 2.8 times. During the honey harvest from linden, the strength of families increased by 15%, sunflower - by 30%, which affected the increase in honey productivity. The flowering period of white acacia occurs in late May-early June. For the first five days, the air temperature and humidity were favorable for nectar production, and the wind speed was somewhat high. White acacia produces nectar during the day and per day the bee family of the control hive of medium strength produced from 2350 to 8400 g of nectar. In the first half of the day for the first 6 hours in the nest of the bee family was 65.5% of the nectar of daily income. One flower of white acacia secretes up to 5.3 mg of nectar under optimal weather conditions. At the beginning of the flowering period was 3.2 mg of nectar, on the third day - 5.3 mg, 4-9 days - the nectar content in the flower of white acacia was at the level of 4-4.2 mg, starting from day 10 the nectar content decreases to the mark 1.2 mg. Such a sharp decrease could be caused by high humidity and rainy days these days.