نشریه علوم و فنون زنبور عسل ایران
پیاپی 25 (پاییز و زمستان 1401)

Honey bees and beekeeping belong to a large economic organization where the administrators are the beekeepers, the workers are the bees, and the products produced are ecosystem goods and services, mostly incomprehensible, and beekeeping is an inclusive and diverse activity. This activity, which provides multi-systemic advantages to society helps to the sustainable development of rural areas, and helps the development of global sustainability. The increased globalization of honey yield, trading and packaging, the stimulation of international competition, the control of diseases and pests has caused many of the problems and threats that it faces today. In addition, extremely high losses of managed honey bee hives have raised concern about bee health amongst stakeholders and the public. In order to develop policies and strategies for the Khorasan Razavi province beekeeping sector, SWOT analysis was used to find how strengths can be used to realize new opportunities and how weaknesses can reduce progress or magnify organizational threats. In order to achieve these goals, data from various sources from 2019 to 2021 were used and economic studies of apiculture were performed to investigate the opportunities and challenges of Production and trading of honey in different regions of Razavi Khorasan Province, and then strategic intervention options were identified for detection of opportunities.The results showed that the strategic position for the bee group is aggressive. Therefore, it is very important to create and complete the production chains of bee products, as well as to remove mandatory pricing from the priority strategies in the beekeeping sector.

Iranian honeybees have advantages and disadvantages in terms of performance and behavioral traits compared to other honeybee races in the world. The current study was aimed to evaluate the performance of the 14th - 18th generations of breeding improved queens in Iranian Honey Bee Breeding Program, and their comparison with control queens kept in private apiaries. To evaluate the queens, specific questionnaires were designed and completed by beekeepers in their apiaries based on the performance of queens in third layer. Evaluation of queens in 11 apiaries of Alborz province was compared with control queens. Comparison of improved and control queens in terms of swarming and calmness showed there was no significant difference between them. The results showed that in terms of honey production, control queens are superior in one year and there is no difference between them in another year. The results showed that in terms of aggressive behavior, the bred queens were significantly superior to the control queens (P <0.05). Totally, improvement of mentioned traits in some years and superiority of the bred queens in all the provinces of the country, showed that continuing with the effort to genetically stabilize these traits and also use new breeding methods to establish colonies that are compatible with the climatic conditions of the coming years and new problems of the beekeeping industry are required

Bee venom has been considered as a healing medicine since ancient times. In fact, bee therapy (treatment with bee products) has been a common term in past civilizations. Parkinson's disease is one of the progressive neurological disorder. One of the pathological reasons for this neurological disease is the destruction of nerve cells that contain a chemical substance called dopamine, which is produced from certain nuclei in the brain called the substantia nigra. The messages from this chemical are sent from the brain to the motor muscles. Therefore, when a person suffers from Parkinson's disease, the amount of dopamine release decreases step by step and we will see numerous movement problems in the person. Since the worsening process of this disease takes place slowly, therefore, using a suitable treatment process will greatly help the sick person to have a minimal normal life. In numerous studies, countless therapeutic effects of bee venom have been stated in relation to arthritis, neurological, heart, skin and cancer diseases. Therefore, according to the reduction effects that bee venom had on the symptoms of neurological diseases including Parkinson's, we decided to review the studies done on the potential effects of bee venom on Parkinson's disease.

The Dwarf honey bee (Apis florea) is one of the two species of honey bees in Iran. The distribution of this species is limited to Asia and in Iran it is distributed in the south, southeastern and southwestern provinces. This species plays an important role in increasing biodiversity and ensuring food security of the country through pollination, and almost 480 plant species visited by this honey bee have been recorded so far. In terms of morphological and biological characteristics, it has differences with Apis mellifera species, which are mentioned in the following article. Unfortunately, due to the increase in the demand for wild honey in the market and the increase in the unemployment rate in the country, honey hunters destroy more than half of the dwarf honey bee colonies due to improper harvesting of their honey. Unfortunately, recent reports indicate that the population of dwarf honeybees has dropped sharply in the southern provinces of the country, and if the country's officials do not take measures, this valuable honey bee species of our country will be in danger of extinction. Cultivating and raising people's awareness of the importance of Apis florea pollination and the correct method of honey harvesting is one of the most important strategies that must be considered to preserve this important genetic resources of Iran.

In cold and temperate climates, honey bees (Apis mellifera) survive the winter by entering a distinct physiological and behavioral state. In recent years, beekeepers are reporting unsustainably high colony losses during the winter, which have been linked to parasitization by Varroa mites, virus infections, geographic location, and variation across honey bee genotypes. Here, we review literature on environmental, physiological, and social factors regulating entrance, maintenance, and exit from the overwintering state in honey bees in cold and temperate regions and develop a testable model to explain how multiple factors may be acting synergistically to regulate this complex transition. We also review existing knowledge of the factors affecting overwintering survival in honey bees and providing suggestions to beekeepers aiming to improve their colonies’ overwintering success.

In this study, the effects of chamomile extract and walnut green husk were investigated to control Varroa mite. To conduct this study after selecting an apiary infected with Varroa mites in Lorestan province, 18 Langstroth beehive were exposed to the extract and smoke of medicinal plants after identifying the population and determining the level of initial infection. Six treatments with three replications including control treatment (without drug use), Apistan strip treatment, chamomile plant extract treatment as a spray, chamomile smoke treatment treatment, walnut green skin extract treatment as a spray and walnut green skin smoke treatment for five days were examined in selected hives. The results showed that comparing the mean effect of experimental treatments on different days and the whole period on Varroa mite indicates that walnut green shell smoke had the greatest effect and was able to equal the Apistan strip (P> 0.05). Other treatments including chamomile extract and smoke and walnut green husk extract had significant effects on the control of Varroa mite and had a significant difference with the control group (P<0.05). Also, the highest mortality occurred in the control group, which had a significant difference with other treatments (P <0.05) . There is no statistically significant difference (P> 0.05). And from all treatments, chamomile smoke had the least lethal effects on bees. Therefore, considering the harmful effects of chemicals used to control Varroa mite, the use of chamomile and especially the skin Walnut green in the form of smoke is recommended to control this mite.