Impact of corbicular pollen trapping frequency on pollen yield and colony growth in Apis mellifera L. colonies in Indian mustard

Pollen is a nutritionally rich resource collected by bees, providing essential proteins and nutrients required for their growth and development. Effect of varying pollen trapping frequencies on the performance of Apis mellifera L. colonies during the Indian mustard flowering were evaluated with the aim of optimizing pollen collection. Maximum pollen collection was recorded under daily pollen trapping (2931.54 g/colony) followed by alternate-day (1338.46 g/colony), every three days (565.13 g/colony) and weekly trapping (214.42 g/colony). In daily trapped colonies, the honey area expanded by 35.03 % compared to 136.52 % in control colonies. Daily pollen trapping severely hindered brood area expansion, resulting in 19.01 % increase compared to the robust growth in control colonies (62.00 %).Alternate day, every three days and weekly trapping resulted in brood area growth rates of 46.12, 60.76 and 68.56 %, respectively. Regarding pollen store area, daily trapping resulted in significantly smaller increase compared to the control. Hence, pollen trapping provides substantial harvests, whereas excessive trapping, particularly daily collection, adversely affects colony strength, highlighting the need for optimized trapping frequencies to balance beekeeper’s income with colony health.