بررسی تاثیر ویتامین‌های تیامین و ریبوفلاوین روی صفات رفتاری و عملکردی کلنی‌های زنبورعسل ایرانی (Apis melliefa meda)

Honey bee need essential nutrients to survive and reproduce like any other organism. The role of vitamins in bee nutrition is very important, especially when supplementary feeding is proposed with sugar syrup or pollen supplements. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of thiamine vitamins, riboflavin and thiamine-riboflavin combination on the behavioral-functional characteristics of honey bee colonies from March 2022 to September 2023 in the climatic conditions of Kurdistan province, Iran. This research was carried out in the form of a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 7 replications. The experimental colonies were homogenized in terms of queen age and population (adults and brood) before the experiment. Experimental treatments included the sugar syrup (control), thiamine (1500 ppm), riboflavin (1500 ppm), and the combination of thiamine and riboflavin vitamins (1500 ppm). In this research, traits such as honey production, pollen collection, population (adults and brood), protein and fat content of carcass were measured in experimental treatments. Data analysis was done by SAS V.9.4 software. The results showed that the population of adult bees and brood, honey production and pollen collection in colonies fed with thiamine and riboflavin vitamins and thiamine-riboflavin combination were significantly higher than in control treatment (P<0.05). Also, the percentage of carcass protein and carcass fat bees of the treatments fed with vitamins thiamine, riboflavin and thiamine-riboflavin combination was higher than the bees of the control treatment (P<0.01). In general, it could be concluded that the use of thiamine and riboflavin vitamins and thiamine-riboflavin combination in feeding honey bee colonies have a positive effect on the behavioral-functional characteristics of the colonies and improves the performance and increases the economic efficiency of the colony.