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Study of some aspects of honeybee nutrition in the south-east of Scotland with special reference to pollen

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McLennanAR_1971redux.pdf (33.86Mb)
Date
1971
Author
McLennan, Archibald Robertson
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Abstract
 
 
Colonies of honeybees gather and consume pollen and nectar; the pattern of collection of these substances, certain aspects of their composition, the individual pollen types utilised and the effect of variations in the pattern of nectar collection on colony development have been investigated in the South-East of Scotland. A very small proportion of the available flora is utilised by bees for pollen gathering and an even smaller number of pollen types are collected in any quantity. The mean active pollen gathering period is only between 107 and 120 days long. Variability between colonies rather than between sites accounted for most of the differences between the amounts of pollen trapped. Most pollen and most pollen types were gathered when brood rearing was at its peak. Mixed woodland was the habitat from which bees gathered relatively most pollen and sycamore was the best individual source; less pollen was collected from raeadowland and arable land; in the former white clover was the best source and cruciferous weeds in the latter. The same pollen types were harvested from the one site during the 4 years in which it was investigated although individual colonies there showed slightly different preferences. Trapping pollen from colonies did not affect the amount of brood reared although it appeared to influence the winter survival and also produced a few other temporary effects. A variable proportion of the total pollen being harvested appeared to be culled from the colonies throughout the active season by the traps. Significant relationships between the colony weight and the amount of honey in store throughout the active season (r = 0.94) allowed a study of the nectar flows in the area to be made by direct weighing of the colonies in their hives. This established that good nectar flows occurred on the Lothians' coast in early summer and in the upland area to the south of this coast in Enid and late summer. The first of these produced transient effects upon the colonies while the second affected the amount of honey stored (36 kg stored in upland colonies compared with 11 kg in the coastal ones) and the brood reared. All the colony characteristics measured with the exception of honey in store reached their maxima about mid-summer when they averaged 37,000 adult bees, 2.7 kg stored pollen and 21,000 brood. Larger colonies stored most honey by the end of the season and reared most brood; but the only significant correlations were those between the pollen trapped per day and the brood, and between the mean pollen in store and the brood. As a result of chemical investigations the results mentioned in this next section seemed most worthy of note. Fresh pollen contained 27% water. Wooden traps produced pollen in a much more satisfactory state than metal ones. The mean lipid and ash content of the pollens was low. About 31% of the pollen consisted of sugars, which are valuable food materials for honeybees. The gross energy of pollen was high (5,500 kilo calories per g). Pollens contain a low quantity of nucleic acid. Most of the nitrogen content of pollens after hydrolysis was in the form of amino acids. The various types of pollen showed a close similarity in the relative amounts of amino acids which they contained with the exceptions of serine, cystine and histidine. Analyses of honeybee carcasses indicated that their amino acid contents were very similar to those of the pollens which are therefore nearly ideal sources of these nutrients for bees. Pollens were also found to be better sources of the minerals Na, Mg, K and P for honeybees than honey in which the cation pair K and Mg were closely related and Mg was most affected by the other ions investigated.
 
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/35272
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  • Biological Sciences thesis and dissertation collection

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