The effects of pollen substitutes on performance of honey bee colonies in Kurdistan apiaries

In the absence of pollen in nature, the lack of access to appropriate sources of protein in the bee protects the life and survival of the colony with serious risks, and this lack has many effects on colony development and survival. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of pollen replacement nutrition with egg-dried yolk and pollen supplements with dried pollen grains on colonies in the bee colonies. The studied traits in this study included colony population, infant growth and population growth, the shelf life of colonies and consumption and production of honey. This research was conducted in a completely randomized design with three treatments and ten replications. The results of this study showed that in the first and second stage of measurements of mean population, there was a significant difference between two pollen replacement and pollen supplements with control treatment in the three selected cities, and there was a significant difference between pollen replacement and pollen supplements (P<0.05). In the first and second stage of counting and measurement of infant growth and population growth in the three mentioned cities, there was a significant difference between pollen replacement treatments and pollen supplementation with control treatment (P<0.05). The means of honey production per colony in all regress, there was a significant difference between the two treatments and control group (P<0.05). There was a significant difference between the amount of winter honey consumption in three counties, between replacement treatment and pollen supplementation with control treatment (P<0.05). The results of this study showed that in the absence of pollen, pollen replacement compounds could be used without any adverse effects. Pollen replacement had no negative impact on population growth, infant growth and population growth, the use of winter honey had no weight gain. Meanwhile, the cost of using pollen replacement is much lower than pollen supplements.