Vitamin E supplement in honey bee colonies to increase cell acceptance rate and royal jelly production

Abstract

SUMMARYThis study was carried out to determine the effects of different colony feeding methods on queen cell acceptance rates and royal jelly (RJ) production: (1) pollen substitute (PS), (2) PS + vitamin E (PS+VE), (3) sugar syrup (SS), (4) sugar syrup + vitamin E (SS+VE), and (5) no supplementary feed (control, C). Royal jelly production (g per cell) was 0.25, 0.26 0.23, 0.25 and 0.21; average colony yield (g) per harvest 32.1, 33.2, 31.0, 34.6, and 25.0; and total colony production (g) 96.2, 99.6, 93.0, 103.9, and 75.0 in groups PS, PS+VE, SS, SS+VE, and C, respectively. Any form of supplementary feeding improved RJ production relative to controls. Total colony production and average colony yield per harvest were highest in those colonies fed SS+VE or PS+VE. A benefit of supplementary VE was more apparent for sugar syrup than for pollen substitute; total colony production and average colony yield per harvest were significantly higher for SS+VE colonies than for SS, whereas no such benefit was shown between the pollen substitute groups.