Abstract
Although honey bees are efficient pollinators of many crops cultivated in greenhouses, it is difficult to maintain colony strength and consequently pollination efficiency. Many bees die under greenhouse conditions and the colonies rapidly weaken. We examined the effect of adaptations to the hive entrance that allowed control of whether and when bees had access to the outside environment to see how it would affect pollination efficiency and colony condition in greenhouses with flowering cucumber (Cucumis sativus) plants in comparison with colonies that remained constantly inside the greenhouse, previously left in a dark environment or not. We recorded the type and period of visitation to the cucumber flowers, numbers of honey bees entering and leaving the two entrance hives and the effect of this type of management on the quantity of brood and food. Fiveframe Langstroth “nucleus” colonies were equipped with two 30 square centimeter entrances and two 3.0 cm diameter circular openings. Allowing the bees to make visits outside the greenhouse in early morning with redirection of bees into the greenhouse at 8.30 a.m. did not reduce visitation to cucumber flowers in the greenhouse. Maintaining colonies in the greenhouse reduced brood area and food stores. These losses were significantly reduced in colonies that had access outside the greenhouse during the early morning. Another advantage of alternating access to the inside and the outside of the greenhouse was that there was less possibility of interactions between bees and people working on the crop, and also pesticides application could be made without directly affecting foraging bees.
Highlights
Closed agricultural cultivation systems were developed in order to optimize vegetable production and to obtain high quality products (Muijzenberg, 1980)
Given the advantages of using honey bees for pollination services and the problems that are still unresolved concerning adapting these bees for working in closed environments, we investigated whether allowing bees to alternatively forage inside and outside the greenhouse would allow efficient pollination, while maintaining colony integrity
All of the colonies used in the greenhouses had a reduction in the comb areas occupied by bee brood, pollen and honey (Fig 2)
Summary
Closed agricultural cultivation systems (greenhouses) were developed in order to optimize vegetable production and to obtain high quality products (Muijzenberg, 1980). Bees are commonly used for greenhouse pollination of various crops, including tomatoes and bell peppers, which are normally pollinated by bumble bees, mainly Bombus terrestris (L.) (Free, 1993; Velthuis & van Doorn, 2006) Stingless bees, such as Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) and Nannotrigona spp., have been found to be efficient pollinators of tomatoes (Del Sarto et al, 2005), peppers (Santos et al, 2008), strawberries (Malagodi-Braga & Kleinert, 2004) and cucumbers (Nicodemo e al., 2013). These stingless bees are considered effective and useful pollinators in greenhouses because they are generalist foragers, have a tendency for flower fidelity, do not attack agricultural workers who tend the crop, rarely abandon their nests and store food (Slaa et al, 2006)
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