A SUPPLEMENTAL PROTEIN DIET SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVES MORPHOMETRIC AND REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS OF HONEY BEE QUEENS DURING LATE WINTER

A harsh winter poses a critical challenge for honey bee colonies, leading to substantial losses.This work aimed to improve the morphometric and reproductive features of the queens reared in the late winter.This study examined the morphometric and reproductive characteristics of queens reared in colonies supplemented with a high-protein diet during late winter, compared to unfed colonies.The queens were artificially reared in queen-less colonies supplemented with a high-protein diet (diet 1) consisting of brewer's yeast (30%) + defatted soybean flour (30%) + skimmed milk (10%) + cotton honey (20%) + sugar powder (10%) and also were reared in other unfed colonies.The assessment of 4 pollen substitutes during winter showed significant superiority of diet 1 in colony performance.Therefore, diet 1 was selected to feed colonies used for queen rearing.Workers from the fed colonies exhibited significantly higher of body weight, 2 nd wax mirror area, number of acinus/mm, acini area, and the mandibular gland area compared to workers from the unfed colonies.Compared to the unfed colonies, the fed queen-rearing colonies showed significantly higher acceptance percentage, number of emerged queens, royal jelly (RJ) yield/queen cell, size of a queen cell, and the morphometric and reproductive features of the queen.It can be concluded that feeding colonies a protein-rich diet improves queen morphometric and reproductive features and colony productivity during winter.