Determination of the effects of supplementary feeding (syrup) duration and amount on physiological and behavioral characteristics of honey bees in ordu province

Turkey has an important beekeeping potential in terms of its favourable ecology, number of colonies, rich flora and various honey bee genotypes. Nevertheless, honey yield per colony is not at the desired level and is even below the world average. In honey production, regardless of the colony management style and the genotype used, the main objective is to ensure that the colonies enter the period of intense nectar flow strongly. Honey bee colonies need additional feeding in addition to their natural nutrition. For this reason, in order to obtain higher yields from honey bee colonies; it is very important to provide the bees with the additional nutrients required by the bees in critical periods. In honey bee colonies, supplementary feeding should be done in order to encourage the queen to lay eggs, to increase the incubation activity, to increase the colony population, to strengthens the bee colonies before intensive nectar intake and to enable the bees to utilise the nectar-pollen resources more effectively. The study was carried out in Beekeeping Research Institute under the ecological conditions of Ordu province. In the study, 20 colonies (5 hives*4 groups) were used and these colonies were equalised by giving sister queens. Then, 20 colonies were divided into 4 groups of 5 colonies by chance. The colonies in the first group were given supplementary feeding (syrup) for 5 days, the colonies in the second group for 10 days, the colonies in the third group for 15 days and the control group, which constituted the fourth group, was not given any supplementary feeding. In the study, the number of frames with bees in the groups was determined as 11.02 in the first group, 9.70 in the second group, 9.00 in the third group and 8.76 in the control group and the differences were found significant (P<0.05). The differences between the groups in terms of brood efficiency were found significant (P<0.05) and were determined as 5842.41 cm2/colony in the first group, 5255.48 cm2/colony in the second group, 4856.70 cm2/colony in the third group and 4105.11 cm2/colony in the control group. Honey yield was also determined as 17.54 kg/colony in the first group, 13.76 kg/colony in the second group, 10.62 kg/colony in the third group and 7.40 kg/colony in the control group. When the duration of supplemental feeding in colonies was reduced and the amount was increased, the number of bee-infested frames, brood production efficiency, and thus honey yield were significantly increased. Analysis revealed that the number of Nosema spores, which can cause disease, was below established limits. When Varroa populations were examined, analyses conducted after the honey harvest revealed a significant increase in Varroa populations compared to initial measurements.