Field forest strips of the Middle Dnipro Area Forest- Steppe as raw areas for beekeeping

Abstract

Studying the supply of beekeeping industry with a spectrum of nectar- and pollen-bearing plants is quite important for increasing the quantitative saturation of bee colonies in certain areas. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the entire phytodiversity of artificially created plantations, spontaneous and natural forest communities, which are widespread on the territory of the Middle Dnipro Area Forest-Steppe. We previously investigated the participation of these raw plants from the list of tree and shrub species of forest plantations of this territory, and in this work we analyzed the full participation of available plant species in the groupings of field protection forest strips. Analysis of the spreading of nectar-bearing and pollen-bearing species made it possible to identify 91 species of plants that have a diverse representation in these plant communities. The most valuable raw material species are Tilia cordata Mill. and Robinia pseudoacacia L., which prevail in some of the studied groups and are promising for the main productive honey collection. Also, in these plantations there are some species with a fairly high value of raw materials, but they mostly have a small spreading. In ad- dition, a significant widespread group of plants was noted, but they do not belong to good honey plants. The investigated plantations in the combination of tree, shrub and herbaceous plant species present in them can also be actively used by bees as a source of supporting food practically throughout the entire period of their flight activity. Especially important is the use of field-protective forest strips as raw land, due to their frequent finding near settlements where apiaries are usually located, as well as the possible use of protective forest plantations for the location of apiaries during migrations. A partial correction of the values of nectar and pollen activity of individual species and the total raw value of some of these species was also performed