The Effect of Substitute Feeding on Drone Larvae Production Performance in Honey Bee Colonies

Abstract

Objective: The growing relevance of Apitherapy in recent years has increased interest in functional bee products. Because of its high nutritional content, drone larva (Apilarnil) has a wide range of biological activities. Individual and total weights of drone larvae were collected from colonies fed with various substitute diets were compared in this research. Material and Methods: The research examined 12 colonies out of 100 which were comparable in brood condition and colony size. The colonies were randomly allocated into three groups: control, sugar syrup and pollen substitute diet. Each group underwent three replications. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the weight averages of individual drone larvae taken from colonies (p>0.05). The difference in the average weight of total drone larvae collected between the groups was statistically significant (p