THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FEEDING BEES FOR USE IN FRUIT CROPS POLLINATION

Abstract

Нoney bees (Apis mellifera L., 1758) perform a global plant pollination function. For normal development, bee colonies need to meet their nutritional needs. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of artificial bee feeding to increase their flight activity on pollinating fruit crops. To achieve this goal, a scheme for the use of artificial feeding was developed and the optimal set of feeds was selected as well as the influence of artificial feeding on an increase of colony strength and the flight activity of bees was investigated. The study was conducted in a private orchard in 2020. For feeding of bees used: candy in February (1 kg 5 times with an interval of 6 days); sugar syrup both in March (300 g 6 times with an interval of 3 days) and in April (100 g on the first day of flowering), also for bee training for pollination in April, the second experimental group was fed geranium-flavored syrup (1 %); protein mixture in March (500 g 3 times with an interval of 6 days). It has been experimentally proven that the use of artificial feeding is necessary for effective pollination in April. Those bee colonies that have been fed since the beginning of February have made a cleaning flight three days earlier and at a lower temperature (+8…+10 C) while the control colonies do not increase the required number of bees for effective pollination of fruit crops (first decade of April). The complex carbohydrate-protein feeding of bee colonies according to the developed scheme increases the strength of bee colonies by 5–21 % and increases the number of brood cells by 15.4 %. The effectiveness of bee feeding on orchard pollination is confirmed by an increase in their flight activity by 44–47 % during the flowering of cherries, sweet cherries, and pears and by 26–35 % during the flowering of apple trees. The use of flavored syrup allows increasing the flight activity of bees by 6–12 % compared to non-flavored syrup the day after feeding.