quntity of collecting pollen by honey bee ( apis mellifera l. ) and its relation with climatic conditions in gharbia governorate, egypt

The present study was carried out at a private apiary in Ayash village, Mehalla El-Kobra, Gharbia governorate in 2011- 2012 seasons. The aim of this study to detect the quantity income pollen collected from clover and maize crops. Survey of the area vegetation showed that clover was the dominated crop in winter and some viacia faba been fields, while rice, maize and may be some cotton fields in summer . Nine colonies with 10 combs were used in this study. In general, the mean of collected pollen was higher in clover season than those in maize (103.924 and 77.981g in 2011, however, in 2012 it was 47.232 and 45.425 g 9 colony3 days ), respectively. Air temperature and relative humidity were also registered. The highest collected quantity of pollen reached its maximum values between 70% and 78% of relative humidity and 23 °C and 25 °C. The number of pollen loads increased as relative humidity (r = 0.109; 0.151) and temperatures had a strong negative influence on the collected pollen (r = -0.193; -0.375 ) in clover season. The pollen loads decreased positively with temperature (rs = -0.375,0.463 and 0.127) , negatively correlated with relative humidity (rs = 0.151, - 0.391 and 0.248) in maize season. The high values of loading pollen were in clover than those in maize, it may be related with the long flowering of clover as well as the effect of climatic influences .