STUDIES ON SOME HONEYBEE RACES (APIS MELLIFERA L.) IN EGYPT

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of Carniolan; Italian and F1 Italian in the production of sealed brood (worker and drone), queen cells, stored pollen and honey production. Three peaks of worker brood production had happened during the whole year. The first, the second and the third peaks were in February, May and August, respectively. It was obvious that Italian race produced the lowest number of drone brood during the whole year. In contrast, Carniolan race was outstanding in drone brood production. February and May produced the largest area of drone brood in the three races during the whole year. Italian race was the inferior in queen cells production. Meanwhile, Carniolan race was superior. Conversely, insignificant differences among the three races in queen cells production were observed. Italian race was outstanding in stored pollen activity, contrary to F1 Italian hybrid which was the lowest races in production. As an illustration, insignificant differences between Italian and Carniolan races were noticed. It was obvious that Carniolan and Italian races produced the highest amounts of honey.