A study on assessment of duration of dearth period for Honey bees in Haryana, India

[摘要]  Good beekeeping management requires complete knowledge of available bee flora (floral calendar) round the year in a particular area (apiary). In the present study, honey bee colonies were checked for their performance during summer dearth periods. It was observed that the values for all the selected colony parameters: Egg laying, unsealed and sealed brood, honey and pollen stores, were maximum during April when sufficient food stores were available in bee hive. These values started decreasing drastically in the subsequent months i.e. May and June when there was scarcity of nectar and pollen. No any sealed brood, pollen stores and honey stores were observed in June month when dearth period was on its peak. An increase was observed in various colony parameters form July onwards, and it was noticed that by the mid of September, bee colonies started recovering from the losses occurred during pollen dearth periods

[学科分类] 昆虫学

[关键词] Apis mellifera;dearth period;brood;pollen