Development of Colonies of A. cerana Given Food Supplements.

Abstract

Honey bees need food for the growth and development and their bodies. Basically, the food of honey bees is nectar and pollen with can be obtain from plants. There food supplement namely KPR (a mixture of soya bean-flour, fresh pollen of Zea mays, yeast and sugar syrup), RPR (a mixture capok, fresh pollen of Zea mays, yeast and sugar syrup) and BPR (a mixture bran rice, fresh pollen of Zea mays, yeast and sugar syrup), were compared to find out witch one as preferred by A. cerana. These three different pollen supplement together with positive controlled colonies (colonies without neither pollen trap nor food supplement) and negative controlled colonies (colonies with pollen trap but without food supplement), were studied for there effect on the growth of colonies of A. cerana. These studies with conducted at the Forest and Nature Conservation Research and Development Center Bogor from 9 August to 20 september 2002. The research showed that A. cerana accepted all the provided the food supplements. Although RPR seemed to be more preferre able. All treated colonies lost there weight and the number of sealed brood (pupa) during the course of the study. However, the least with lost was found in positive controlled colonies and the most weight a lost was found in negative controlled colonies. Key words: development of colony, food supplement, A. cerana