Artificial feeding of honey bee colonies by adding nutritional supplements to pollen substitutes and its effect on the development of the hypopharyngeal gland stages of honeybee workers Apis mellifera L.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of new alternative supplements on the development of the hypopharyngeal glands in worker honey bees. The main ingredients for each diet (A, B) were inactive yeast, powdered sugar and water. The diet A consisted of chamomile, caraway, and sesame powder. While diet (B (consisted of anise, Laura paper and ginger. The results showed that the development of the hypopharyngeal glands reached a maximum when feeding on diet A at advanced stages of hypopharyngeal glands, and the lowest development of the pharyngeal gland was in the control bees, while the bees feeding on the diet B had moderate growth in the development of the gland within the same periods of time. It could be concluded that the nutrition of the bees with anise, Laura paper and ginger could play an important role in the development of hypopharyngeal glands according to the nutritional value of the diet.

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