SUPLEMENTAÇÃO PROTEÍCA NA PRODUÇÃO DE RAINHAS AFRICANIZADAS

Abstract

The provision of protein supplementation for bee colonies will assist in nutrition, development and production in order to assess the colonies development. Supplementing colonies during periods of food shortage will help to keep the bee population ready for when flowering to arrive. When food is available in the wild it will aim to attract the nursing mothers for their consumption, avoiding the pennants displacement and higher work of bees that are exercising their activities within the colony. The objective of this research was to evaluate the production of Africanized queens receiving protein supplements, one of which is fermented. 16 mini-breeding colonies were used and it was used the double transfer technique. The evaluated queens came from three production cycles. The parameters evaluated were: queens' weight at emergence, morphometric and histological characteristics and supplement consumption by the colonies. After oral exposure to treatments, it was found that there was a difference between the experimental groups when evaluating the morphometric measures and weight. There was a difference in the supplementation intake and treatments that received fermented supplementation showed significant differences in the ovarioles count.