Effect of various dietary vitamin C (L - Ascorbic acid) levels on the Rate of population size and honey production in honeybee colonies

Vitamins constitute an important subject in honey bee nutrition and are necessary for brood development. Vitamin C is one of the most essential vitamins for the majority of herbivorous insects such as honey bee، and plays an important role in its life. This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of its various level of vitamin C on population size and honey production in honey bee colonies. In this experiment after making the uniform colonies in spring for population، brood area and food accumulation، the sister queens were introduced to colonies. Equalization of colonies for stored honey and stored pollen were repeated in autumn. In late February five concentrations of vitamin C in sugar syrup (750، 1500، 2250 and 3000 ppm) were given to colonies in a Complete Randomized Design with 5 treatments and 5 replication. During 40 days، feeding of colonies was carried out every 5 days and received one liter of syrup in each time. Adult population and honey production were evaluated and obtained data have been analyzed by SAS software، PROC ANOVA and were grouped by Duncan’s test. Obtained results showed a significant difference in honey production (P < 0. 05)، but not significantly different on adult population (P > 0. 05). Although adult population didn’t differ significantly among treatments، but the results showed that the colonies fed with various levels of this vitamin، especially 3000 PPM level، had high population in comparison with other colonies. Population average was significantly correlated with Honey production (rs = 0. 5، P < 0. 0093، n = 25). Honey production was affected significantly by vitamin. C 3000 ppm. Vitamin C increased the amount of honey and adult population amount up to 85% and 58% in comparison with control group respectively.