<i>Apis mellifera</i> L. Stock Varied in Apple Pollen Foraging Preference

Abstract

Apis mellifera L. colonies were evaluated to explore the apple foraging preference for effective pollination. In 2017, colony G2 showed highest preference for apple pollen loads (18.78%), while L3 recorded lowest apple pollen load (9.89%). On the basis of preference, queens from H2, L3, and G2 were produced to raise progenies for further multiplication and evaluation in 2018 and similar selection experiment was conducted in 2019 and 2020. In 2020 significant number of foragers were conditioned to apple flowers from the colony selected during the year 2019, thus indicating that A. mellifera strains multiplied from the colony showing higher apple pollen foraging preference was carried over to next generation and can be exploited to produce progenies to improve pollen hoarding trait with the help of continuous selection and breeding process.