Investigation of some quality features of harvested drone larvae by feeding honey bee colonies with food substitutes

In recent years in Turkey, "apitherapy" has gained popularity an this increased interest in functional bee products. Apilarnil is a new bee product that is not well known by beekeepers. In this study, some physico-chemical properties of apilarnil obtained from colonies fed with different substitute feeds and the effect of different substitute feed on apilarnil production were investigated. The study was carried out on 12 colonies out of 100 colonies, equal in terms of brooding and colony strength. Colonies randomly divided into 3 groups were divided into control group (A), the group fed with honey substitute (B) and the group fed with protein substitute feed (C). At the end of the experiment, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups according to single drone larvae obtained from the colonies; ;, the difference between the control (A) group and the group fed with protein substitute feed was found statistically significant between the total amounts of apilarnil obtained. (p >0.05) There was no difference between sugar (B) and control (A) and group (C) fed with protein substitute feed. The total amount of apilarnil obtained was 214.2 g, 312.38 g, and 399.9 g, respectively, according to the groups. The moisture, protein, fat and sugar ratios of the apilarnils obtained in the study were analyzed according to the groups. 76%, 12.9%, 5.8%, 5.0% for the control group, respectively. 76.3%, 10.7%, 5.5% 7.4%. For the group fed protein substitute feed, respectively; 76.6%, 14.1% 4.8%, 4.4%. According to the research findings, it has been shown that feeding the colonies with protein substitute feed is effective in increasing Apilarnil production.