For a successful
beekeeper, beekeeping production depends on the selection of better performing
honey bee colonies. Thus, selection aims and criteria are important tools in
bee breeding program for a beekeeper in an apiary. Colonies in an apiary could
be selected on the basis of some of the of most important measurable
characteristics viz. spring colony development, gentleness and a tendency to
remain calm on the comb, over wintering ability, honey production and
resistance against diseases [1-6]. In honeybees as social insect, the colony is
the level of selection, but most of the functions are performed by individual
workers in the colony. The various production activities of colonies are
greatly influenced by the population of adult bees that forms each bee colony.
Colonies with larger populations usually perform better than those with smaller
populations. Hence, strength of bees in a colony affects productivity because
of high level of correlation between hive strength and honey production. There
are some of the important factors which affect colony strength viz. egg laying
rate, viability rate, brood care, brood development time and life span [7,8].
Although, the worker population of each honey bee colony also depends on food
availability (nectar and pollen), oviposition capacity is very important for
the generation of populous hives [9]. The effective defiance mechanism against
disease is one of the most important functions of the worker bees in a colony.
The individual bee’s immune system functions in a similar way to that of
vertebrate animals, although the most effective defense mechanism that can lead
to self-healing of the bee colony is the social behavior of
removing as many pathogen agents or parasites as possible from the bee colony.
This behavioral defense (entrance reduction and/or stinging) prevents
parasites from penetrating the bee colonies, or their killing or removal.
Disease resistance is known to correlate with the “hygienic behavior” of
worker bees. This is the ability of workers to recognize dead brood and then
remove infected or damaged brood. This characteristic has been found to be
regulated by two pairs of recessive genes. The queen honey bee is an important
member to a colony’s survival and functions. The longevity of a queen in a colony
depends on its reproductive potential, and its permanence in the colony is
related to its oviposition capacity, which affects colony viability and
vitality. The queen is naturally replaced when the spermatozoa stored in its
sperm theca are depleted. Egg-laying capability "is not the only measure
of a queen's performance. Queens produce pheromones that greatly affect the
activities, especially foraging activity of workers. Pheromone production
diminishes in quality and quantity as queen age. In peak season, a queen laid
about 2000 eggs. Brood solidness is also an important trait of a colony.
Brooding pattern/solidness of a colony could be erratic or solid. Brood
solidness of a comb is expressed by the percentage of empty worker cells in a
brood patch of a given area. Whether, an acceptable level of empty cells in a
comb should be usually less than 10%. In the light of above facts regarding the
importance of selection of better performing colonies, those colonies having
all these important traits will be selected in breeding yard for further
breeding programmed for improvement of the stock. Therefore, the aim of this
work was to evaluate productive potentiality trait of local honeybee colonies
for further colonies multiplication purpose.
Materials and Methods
Description of the Study
area and source of experimental colonies
This
study was conducted at Della apiary of Hadassah agricultural research center,
south nation, nationality, people regional state, Ethiopia from October 2019 to
November 2021 for two and half consecutive years. Twenty Model beekeepers were
purposively selected in Della zawiya worked. One strong colony per beekeepers
was selected by examined via internal and external observation for their
efficiency and purchased and collected in to study site. Finally, the collected
colony transferred to improved hive in experimental apiary site. Twenty
experimental colonies of honeybees used for this experiment to evaluate the
performance. The necessary seasonal colony management activities were undertaken
throughout the study period. Performance evaluations of the colonies were
studied through the following different parameters.
Data Collection
Evaluation of Hygienic Behavior
Hygienic
behavior was determined by a pin-killed brood assay in which the time was
recorded for colonies to detect and remove dead brood from a comb section
containing 100 cells (containing approximately 100 capped pupae) on one side of
the comb. This section of the comb was marked by removing one entire row of
cells surrounding the 100 cells. The number of empty cells within the section
was counted and recorded. Then every capped pupa within the section was
pin-killed and placed back in to the hive of the test colony. After 24 hrs. the
frame with the section will be taken out and then, the numbers of remaining
dead brood and removed was recorded. This test was repeat five times for all
the colonies to be tested for the hygienic behavior. Finally, the percent of
removal of dead brood will calculated as follows the formula used by Kebele,
2006.
R = K- E - C x 100
T-E
Where:
R = Percent removal of dead brood within 24 hrs.
K
= Number of dead broods removed within 24 hrs.
E
= Number of empty cells within the section insert before test
C
= Number of brood cell remained capped after 24 hrs.
T
= Total number of broods within the section of an insert
Evaluation of Brood Area, Pollen
and Nectar Storage
The
total brood area was measured during the study periods to determine the brood
population using 5cm x 5cm gridded wooden frame and placed over each side of
the brood combs. The total brood unit area was calculated from the area
occupied by the brood. In addition to this, the comb area occupied by pollen
and nectar stores was also measure in the same way.
Number of queen cells produced
(Swarming Behavior)
Swarming
tendency of the colonies was evaluated by counting the number of queen cells
constructed from all colonies under the study. These counted cells were removed
immediately to avoid double counting.
Evaluation of Absconding Tendency
Absconding
tendency was assessed by the ratio of colonies evacuating to the total number
of colonies used for the experiment provided that all the colonies are kept
under uniform environmental condition.
Data Management and Statistical
Analysis
Data collected were
entered into Microsoft excel 2007 and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Normality
of the data was check and they are transformed on Arcsine transformation when necessary. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
will run and Tukey’s student test (HSD) at 5% level of significance will used
to make mean separation, whenever significant results will encounter