Pollen Source’s Effects on Honeybee Queen Rearing

Protein-rich diets are known to promote mandibular glands development in nurse workers of the honeybee, hybrid of Apis mellifera carnica. Since the main source of protein for honeybees is pollen, its quality, and digestibility might be important dietary factors determining glands secretions. Since the nurse workers feed the queens, the queen ovaries are affected by the nurse worker’s nutrition. Also, the hemolymph is essential for immunological protection, honeybee chemical transport, and physiological state monitoring. The present work has compared the effect of four types of pollen (clover, Eucalyptus, Corn plant, and Brazilian pepper tree) upon morphological and physiological characteristics of honeybee queens reared at the previous pollen sources. In general, the highest mean of acceptance and mating rate of reared queens were recorded in the Eucalyptus pollen, and the highest mean of queens and virgin weight were observed in the Brazilian pepper pollen. Furthermore, there was a significant difference among means of head width, thorax, and ovarioles length which have a highest mean in the clover pollen, but a number of ovarioles and spermatheca size have the highest mean in the Brazilian pepper pollen, while the highest mean of abdominal length recorded in the Zea mays. In addition, the greatest means of haemocytes was in larvae fed on the Zea mays pollen and then the clover pollen. The predominant types of haemocytes observed were the plasmatocyte cells followed by granulocytes, then the proheamocytes, coagulocytes, and oenocytes. This study provides a guide for Egyptian beekeepers to know the best seasons of plants for rearing and obtaining high-quality queens.