Response of Colony Strength to Honey Production: Regression and Correlation Analysis

Abstract

An experiment was conducted using Randomized Complete Block (RCB) design to find the effects of initial colony strength of Apis mellifera L. on honey production with four levels of initial populations: 4 frames (9,800), 6 frames (14,700), 8 frames (19,600) and 10 frames (24,500) of adult honeybees per colony replicating 5 times during litchi flowering season (February to April, 2003) in Chitwan. This study revealed the exponential increase in honey production {Y = 4.22 – 0.7325 X + 0.09625 X² (4 ≤X ≤ 10 comb covered by bees per colony) and Y = 4.22 – 0.000299 X + 0.000000016 X² (9,800 ≤ X ≤ 24,500 honeybees per colony), n = 4} producing 2.32, 1.59 and 1.18 times more honey from initially 10-, 8- and 6-frame colonies as compared to the honey production of 2.82 kg/colony from 4-frame colonies. There was significantly positive linear correlation among colony attributes like colony strength, brood rearing, comb building, foraging activity and honey production.

Key words: Apis mellifera, honey bee population, colony attributes

J. Inst. Agric. Anim. Sci. 27:133-137 (2006)