Internal ambience of bee colonies submitted to strengthening management by adding broods

Daniel De F Brasil,Breno M Freitas,José Antonio D Barbosa Filho,Michelle De O Guimarães

doi:10.1590/s0100-69162013000500002

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the ideal brood area to be introduced for strengthening Apis mellifera colonies, considering variations in the hive's internal ambience. Therefore, eight colonies were equipped with data loggers for recording variations in temperature and humidity inside the hives. Then, these colonies were split in four treatments involving the swapping of four, three, two and one brood comb between strong and weak colonies. Growth in the amount of brood and food stores to the four colony strengthening treatments was assessed counting the comb cells to record changes in the brood and food area. The colonies tended to restore their normal thermoregulation within four hours after they had been manipulated and the hive cover had been closed, which quickly increased brood area in the receiving colonies. Results showed that adding up to three brood combs constitute an important alternative for strengthening Apis mellifera colonies because it did not interfere with nest thermoregulation, speeded up population growth in weak colonies and did not affect the development of strong colonies.

Highlights

Beekeeping is an activity that has achieved great importance in the farming systems, since it presents an alternative employment and income for the farmer, besides being an activity of easy maintenance and low initial cost, compared to other activities in rural areas (OMRAN, 2011).Despite of the diversity of potential products and services that can be exploited in beekeeping, only populated and well nourished colonies of Apis mellifera produce honey, pollen, beeswax, royalEng
The research in beekeeping ambience shall analyze characteristics of the production environment in the zone of thermal comfort and physiological aspects of bees working in thermoregulation of the animal itself and the colony (BRASIL et al, 2011)
The research was conducted in the apiary of the Bee Sector of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), in the city of Fortaleza, state of Ceará - CE, Brazil, latitude 3°44'S, longitude 38°33'W and altitude of 19.5m, in the period of July to September, 2010

Summary

Introduction

Beekeeping is an activity that has achieved great importance in the farming systems, since it presents an alternative employment and income for the farmer, besides being an activity of easy maintenance and low initial cost, compared to other activities in rural areas (OMRAN, 2011).Despite of the diversity of potential products and services that can be exploited in beekeeping, only populated and well nourished colonies of Apis mellifera produce honey, pollen, beeswax, royalEng. Internal ambience of bee colonies submitted to strengthening management by adding broods jelly, propolis and apitoxin in economically viable quantities or perform pollination services satisfactorily (ENGELSDORP, 2010). It is extremely important to promote the development and strengthening of the colonies before the period of production or flowering of crops (COELHO et al, 2008; EVANGELISTA-RODRIGUES et al, 2008), using management techniques, such as artificial feeding, queens exchanging and/or adding brood combs in weak colonies, among others (WIESE 2000). When you open and close a beehive, and especially when adding brood combs containing hundreds of larvae and pupae, the ideal ambience of an internal colony for good larval development, welfare of adults, ripening and storage of honey and pollen and durability of combs invariably is altered (MARDAN & KEVAN, 2002). The research in beekeeping ambience shall analyze characteristics of the production environment in the zone of thermal comfort and physiological aspects of bees working in thermoregulation of the animal itself and the colony (BRASIL et al, 2011)

Objectives

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Results