Studies On Some Honey Bee Races In Egypt:

Reda El-said Mohamad Omar El-hanafy

In this investigation, four (F, hybrids) of honeybees were used to evaluate their activities at Moshtolior environmental conditions, the hybrids were Starline, Buckfast, Midnite and Carnica. The experimented activities were : 1- Brood rearing 2- Queen rearing 3- Royal jelly production4- Honey production 5- Gathering pollen grains. 6-Some biometrical characters of queens, such as (the weight of virgin queens, number of overioles).7-some biometrical characters of workers.The obtained results could be surrunarized as follows :-1-8ROOD REARING ACTIVITY :Data obtained in this study showed that the Starline hybrid was in the first category with average of 260.17 inch2/colony in the first season while in the second season of the study was 276.96 inch2/colony. TheCarnica hybrid was in the second category with average of 239.77 inch2/colony in the first season while it was 252.88 inch2/colony in the second season. The Midnite hybrid was the third one, where its average was 231.64 inch2/colony in the first season and 237.81 inch2/colony in the second season. The last one was the Buckfast hybrid with an average of 229.19 inch2/colony in the first season and 234.19 inch2/colony in the second season of the study.The statistical analysis appeared high significant differences between the four hybrids PRODUCED QUEENS :Doolittle method was used for producing queens. The resultsobtained were : In the first season : Starline hybrid bees was the first, (76.95%) Midnite hybrid was the second’s (74.07%) Carnica hybrid the third’s(70.47%) and the Buckfast hybrid the fourth (68.15%).In the second season, the percentage of the emerged queens of thesame hybrids were 70.18%, 67.22%, 60.55% and 56.85%, respectively.The statistical analysis showed nosignificant differences between the four hybrids, while for the rearing periods there were significant differences in the first season of the study : Three colonies of similar strength from each hybrid were used forproducing royal jelly during the period from February to July through the two seasons of the study. The data obtained indicated that the Buckfast hybrid gave the high amount of royal jelly, then the Starline hybrid, then the Midnitehybrid and finally the Carnica hybrid with average 8.7, 8.0, 6.87, and 6.19 g/colony, respectively in the first season of the study while it was 7.2, 6.45, 6.03 and 4.93 g/colony, respectively in the second season.The statistical analysis for the amounts of royal jelly showed that there were high sig-nificant differences between the four hybrids and the periods of collecting royal jelly during the two seasons.IV- PRODUCED OF MONEY :Four colonies were used from each strain in these experiments, forproducing citnis honey, clover honey, and cotton honey during the two seasons.The data obtained about citrus honey produced in this study appeared that Starline hybrid was in the first category with average of 3,06 kg./colony in the first season, while it was 3.74 kg. per colony in the second season, and was in the second category the Buckfast hybrid, with average of 2.75 Kg./colony during the first season, while was the sane hybrid in the finally category during the second season with average of 3.19 Kg./colony. Starline hybrid was in the third category with average of 2.53 Kg./colony in the first season, while was in the second category in the second season with average of 3.68 Kg./colony, Midnite hybrid was in the finally category during the first season with average of 2.36 Kg./colony, while it was the same hybrid in the third category during thesecond season with average of 3.35 Kg./colony. As for the produced clover honey Camica hybrid was in the first category, while the Starline hybrid was in the second category, Midnite hybrid was in the third category, and in the finally category Buckfast hybrid with average of 2.91, 2.44, 2.41 and 2.14 Kg./colony, respectivelyduring the first season of the study. In the second season of the study Camica hybrid was in the first category, Starline hybrid was in the second category, the Buckfast hybrid was in the third category, and in the finally category was Midnite hybrid with average 4.10, 3.98, 3.96, and 3.85Kg./colony, respectively.About the produced cotton honey Camica hybrid was in the firstcategory, the Midnite hybrid in the second category, the Starline hybrid was in the third category, and the Buckfast hybrid was in the filially category with average of 2.85, 2.28, 2,11 and 2.0 Kg./colony, respectively during the first season of the study. While in the second season of the study Camica hybrid was in the first category, and Midnite124 hybrid was in the second category, the Buckfast hybrid was in the third category, and was in the finally category Starline hybrid with average of2.86, 2.36, 2.20 and 2,17 Kg./colony, respectively.For statistical analysis, the data obtained in this study showed thatthe difference between the four honey bee hybrids about the amount of citrus honey and clover honey was significant in the first season and unsignificant in the second season. As for the amount of cotton honey itwas highly significant in the first second season of the study.season while it was significant in theV-GATHERED POLLEN GRAINS : a)- Citrus Flow : The data gained in this study appeared the dominance of Starline hybrid in producing pollen grains if compared with the other threehybrids. Its average was 42.48g/colony in the first season during the citrus period and 43.59 g/colony in the second season. Midnite hybrid was in the second category in the first season of citrus flow with an average of 33.66 g/colony and was in the third category through the second season with an average of 33.58 g/colony.Camica hybrid was in the third category with an average of 33,62gn1,/colony through the first season while it was in the second category in the second season with an average of 38.75 gln,/colony. Finally the Buckfast hybrid was the last one during the two seasons with an average of 30.24 and 32.63 Wcolony, respectively.b)-Clover Flow : The four hybrids of bees were arranged through the clover flow as followed through the two seasons of the study :The first one : Starline hybrid. The second one : Carnica hybrid. The third one : Midnite hybrid. The fourth one : Buckfast hybrid. Their averages in the first season were : 161.94, 150.68, 138.68 and 127.37 g/colony, respectively, And were : 164.6, 162.57, 137.23, and 128.23g/colony, respectively through the second season of the study.c)-Maize Flow :Starline hybrid was in the first category, Carnica hybrid in the second tenn, Midnite hybrid in the third term and finally Buckfast hybrid in the fourth tenn through the first season of the study. Their averages were 246.07, 229.62, 212.75 and 205.56 g/colony, respectively, while in the second season, the Starline hybrid was at the top, then Carnica hybrid, then Buckfast hybrid, and at last Midnite hybrid, Their averages were 277.08, 263.98, 239.85 and 227.27 g/colony, respectively, As for citnts flow, statistical analysis showed that there was significant differences between the pollen grains produced by the four honey bee hybrids through the first season while there nosignificantdifferences in the second season.As for clover flow, there were high significant differences between the gathered amounts of pollen grains during the first season while there were only significant differences in the second season. About the Maize flow, the differences were significant through the first season and werehighly significant during the second season of the study. VI-WOMETRIC CHARACTERS OF QUEENS :a)- Weight of Virgin Queens :The results gained in this subject showed that the mean weight ofvirgin queens of Starline hybrid was in the first category, then secondarythe weight of Camica hybrid queens, then thirdly came the weight of Midnite hybrid queens and lastly the weight of Buckfast hybrid queens. The mean weights were 165.93, 153,1, 133.93 and 126.37g/colony, respectively in the first season of the study, while the averages were 167.23, 157.43, 137.33 and 133.07 g/colony, respectively in thesecond season of the study.Statistical analysis of this data showed that there were high significant differences between the rearing periods and the meanweights of honey bee queens in the two seasons of the study.b)-Number of Ovarioles :In case of number of ovarioles in mated queens it was found thatStarline hybrid queens were in the first category. Then camica hybrid, afterwards the Midnite hybrid and finally the Buckfast hybrid during the two seasons of the study. Another group of queens from the four hybridswere reared in the second season of the study. The average numbers of the ovarioles in the first season were 334.84, 317.67, 286.85 and 279.35 ovariol/queen, respectively. During the second season were 335.63,308.07, 285.67 and 275.62 ovariol/queen, respectively.The statistical analysis for the number of ovarioles between the four hybrids and the periods of rearing queens showed that there were highsignificant differences in the two season of the study.d)-The Cubital Index :The cubital index of the Camica hybrid worker bees was at the top, then the Italian hybrid, after that the Midnite hybrid, then came theStarline bees, then the Caucasian hybrid, then the Buckfast hybrid, after wards the Egyptian hybrid with averages of about 3.047, 2.943, 2.916,2.796, 2.513, 2.346 and 2.322 nun, respectively.About the statistical analysis it was found that there were high significant differences between the sizes of the cubital index of the usedbee workers.e) - The Size of Venom Sac :The size of the Italian hybrid worker bees was the largest one thenfollowed by the Midnite hybrid, Egyptian then the hybrid after that the Buckfast hybrid, then the Starline bees, then the Carnica hybrid, afterwards came the Caucasian hybrid with averages of 1.018, 1.002,0.994, 0.940, 0.935, 0.765, and 0.748 mm3, respectively.As for the statistical analysis there were high significant differencesbetween the size of venom sac of various hybrids of bee workers.f)- Pollen Basket Area :The pollen basket area of the Italian hybrid worker bees was thelargest area then after that the area of the Midnite hybrid then followed by the area of the Egyptian hybrid, after that cane the size of the area of theBuckfast hybrid, then followed by the area of the Starline hybrid and then the area of the Carnica bees and finally the area of the Caucasian hybrid with the following averages : 1.774, 1.761, 1.713, 1.671, 1.671, 1.651 and 1.558 mm3, respectively. There were nosignificant differencesbetween the different areas.- Weight of Hypopharyngeal glands:The weight hypopharyngeal glands in the Italian bees was the largest than Carinca and Egyptian bees, and more than development in the Italian bees then compared with Carnica andEgyptian bees. h) - Development of wax glands : The longitudinal and transversal of wax plate were longer in the Italian bee worker than other honey bee races (Carnica and Egyptian bees), while, the distance between wax plate was similar in all races.: The conclusion of these studies showed that Starline hybrid F1 stu-passed all other hybrids for producing swarms, rearing queens, producing pollen grains, high weight and high numbers of tvarioles of produced queens.The Buckfast hybrid Fi surpassed other hybrids for producing royal jelly, while Carnica hybrid F1 was the best for producing high amounts ofhoney. from the past studies the author advised keeping different honey bee strains inside the apiary. For producing swarms and royal jelly he reconunended rearing the yellow honey bee strains such as the Starline and Buckfast bees or its hybrids, in case of producing high amounts of honey the writer advised rearing the ash-coloured strains of honeybee or its hybrids as Camica bees.