The effect of different nutrient supplementation on aggressiveness and stress protein (HSP70) in honey bee ( <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. <i>anatolica</i> )

Honey bees’ stress and aggressiveness levels can be affected by different nutrient consumption. This study aims to investigate how the stress protein (heat shock protein [HSP]70) responses and aggression behavior test change depending on different nutrient supplementation in honey bees. Bees were fed mixed spring pollen (MSP) (n:3), sugar syrup (SS) (n:3), honey syrup (HS) (n: 3), and control (CNT) (not fed, n: 3) as different groups. The effects of different nutrient supplementation on stress protein (HSP70) in workers (foragers) and nursery bees were found to be significant (p ≤ 0.05). The stress protein level for forager bees was found to be the lowest in the MSP (9.53 ± 0.71) group than in others. There was no difference between the CNT (12.95 ± 0.71) and SS (14.46 ± 0.71) and also between the HS (16.15 ± 0.71) and SS group. Stress protein was detected for the nursery bees, the lowest in the MSP (12.24 ± 0.85) group, the highest in the CNT (18.31 ± 0.85) group, and SS and HS groups were found similar. On the other hand, as a result of the aggressiveness tests performed in the same groups, it was determined that the lowest level of aggression was in the SS (36.92 ± 12.32) and HS groups (47.42 ± 12.32) (p ≤ 0.05). The highest aggressiveness was observed in the MSP (113.58 ± 12.32) and CNT (95.25 ± 12.32) groups. Our findings (p ≤ 0.05) support that MSP supplementation contributes to lowering stress protein (HSP70) levels and increases “anxiety” or “defense” (protection) instincts in the hive.