Biotechnological Evaluation of Bee Ethology During Honey Collection and Probiotic Properties of Honey

Abstract

The influence of biotechnological factors, such as purebred families and honey base on the ethology of bees in the process of nectar collection and the species composition of the association of probiotic cultures in freshly pumped honey to bees was found out. The research was conducted using Ukrainian steppe bees. The following most typical external features of their breed, namely the length of the proboscis from 6.34 to 6.44 mm, cubital index in the range of 2.17 ± 0.04 - 2.61 ± 0.05, discoidal displacement 76 - 100 %, the shape of the edge of the wax mirror 68 - 96% of convex cases. The species composition of honey plants in typical conditions of the Forest-Steppe zone of Ukraine, their contribution to the general honey harvest during the whole beekeeping season and the formation of antibacterial defense mechanism of bees based on the association of probiotic cultures in their intestines and freshly pumped honey are analyzed. Data on differentiation of selected cultures from bee honey by cultural-morphological and biochemical properties are given. Probiotic cultures were identified by cultivation on differential media. Thus, cultures of <i>Lactobacillus plantarum and Bifidobacterium bifidum</i> were accumulated on MRS medium (solid and liquid), and <i>Enterococcus faecium</i> was accumulated on tryptone soy medium. It is shown that the quantitative characteristics of honey accumulation in the bee nest depend on a number of biotechnological factors. The main indicators that affect the ethology of bees when collecting nectar are purebred and species composition of the honey base. The results of the research serve as a basis for further studies of the ethology of the Ukrainian steppe breed of bees during honey collection, its popularization and use in large apiaries (100 and more families) according to the breed zoning plan in the Forest-Steppe zone of Ukraine and for the development of new antibacterial, specific for bees, organic products based on probiotic cultures, isolated from honey.