Effects Of Protein Forage On Emergent Weight And Hypopharyngeal Gland Development And Production Of Royal Jelly In Worker Honeybee(Apis Mellifera)

Protein is a necessary for honey bees to keep normal growth, development and reproduction. The short supply or poor quality of protein will induce delayed development and short life span for the larvae and young workers, even off production for the queen, as a result, the colony will collapse. Therefore, protein feed should be offered to the swarms according to production requirements. The major protein feed is made by fixing pollen and soybean powder at a proper ratio. But, the optimum proportion has not been determined.In this study, colonies were fed with mixtures of tea pollen and soybean powder with different proportions to detect the differences of individual development as well as the yield and composition of royal jelly among them. The results indicated that protein nutritional levels may affect the emergent weight and the development of hypopharyngeal gland of worker bees significantly: the emergent weight of worker bees fed with 100% tea pollen had no significant differences compared with those fed with 75% tea pollen, but compared with those fed with 100% soybean powder, the differences were significant. Measuring the width of hypopharyngeal gland, bees fed with 100% tea pollen had similar results with those fed with 75% tea pollen on day 6, 9 and 12 respectively. When compared with those fed with 100% soybean powder, differences were not significant on day 6 and 9 except 12. These results also suggest that protein nutritional levels may have remarkable influence on the output of royal jelly and its components, such as protein, fat and 10-HDA.