Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
2
Department of Plant Protection, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.
3
Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
Abstract
The present study was carried out in two regions of Upper Egypt, (Assiut and Sohag governorates) to verify qualitative and quantitative pollen types on the bodies of honey bee foragers through body surface pollen analysis. It was conducted by taking weekly samples of incoming nectar foragers, collected directly from apiaries, during the blooming season (from March to September). The blooming season was divided into three periods as follows: first period (early spring: March and April), the second period (late spring: May and June), and third period (summer: July to September). The results showed that, in the Assiut area, there were twenty-one plant species belonging to sixteen botanical families, while in the Sohag area, there were 14 plant species belonging to 9 plant families during the blooming season. In the first period, Foeniculum vulgare and Eucalyptus globules in the Assiut area, and Brassica kaber and Eucalyptus globules were classified as secondary pollen types and labeled as nectariferous plants, while Phoenix dactylifera was labeled as a polleniferous plant in both areas. Thus, the honey yield would be bifloral honey in both regions in this period. While during the second period, the dominant pollen type in both regions belonged to the Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.), and the other pollen was labeled as a minor pollen type. Therefore, the type of honey would be monofloral honey (clover honey). In the third period, eucalyptus pollen was the dominant pollen, followed by Alfalfa’s pollen as the secondary pollen type in the Assiut area. So, the honey yield would be dominated by eucalyptus nectar. On the contrary, alfalfa’s pollen (Medicago sativa) was the dominant pollen, and the other pollen was classified as a minor pollen type in the Sohag area. Hence, the honey yield would be dominated by alfalfa nectar. Knowledge about the polleniferous and nectariferous plant sources is essential for bee conservation. as well, as contributing toward the prediction of the expected honey yield type. Consequently, more studies in many areas of Upper Egypt are necessitated.
Keywords
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