Major pollen sources for honey bee colonies in desert Toshka region, Egypt

Abstract

: Toshka is a desert region of newly reclaimed lands has not been evaluated for beekeeping activities. The present was designed to evaluate the area for the major plant sources of pollen, which is the main source of protein for honeybee. To identify pollen plant sources needed for honeybee colonies throughout the year, four colonies of an equal strength were collected for the present study. Samples of pollen grains were collected from the surrounding plants and used as references to identify the pollen plant sources. Meantime samples of bee bread were collected from the tested colonies every month and microscopically examined and analyzed then the plant sources were identified. The results showed that there were 18 plant sources throughout the year belong to 11 plant families. The family Cucurbitaceae was the most common, which was represented by four plants, followed by both Asteraceae and Fabaceae with three plants each and the others families with one plant only. Spring and April which is the most months of the number of pollen plant sources with seven plants. The summer and June were the lowest in the number of plants with only two plants. The study showed significant differences in the percentages of pollen presence between different pollen grains and time. There were no significant differences in the percentages of pollen presence between both sunflower and fababean, but there were significant differences between sunflower and other plants .