The Effect of Supplementary Feeding with Different Pollens in Autumn on Colony Development under Natural Environment and In Vitro Lifespan of Honey Bees

Simple Summary In the present study, the effect of feeding with pollen sources with different protein content on colony performance, wintering ability and in-vitro longevity of colonies that weakened after feeding with pine honey in autumn or that needed to enter the winter period were investigated. The experiment was carried out in 48 colonies divided into six groups as follows: control, syrup, mixed pollen, Cistus creticus pollen (Pink rock-rose), Papaver somniferum pollen (Opium poppy), and commercial bee cake group. The effect of nutritional differences on survival was found to be statistically significant in vitro and this supports the colony results in the natural environment. As a result, P. somniferum pollen is a good preference to be used in feeding colonies in beekeeping, due to its rich nutritional content. Honey bees need pollen and nectar sources to survive in nature. Particularly, having young bees in colonies is vital before wintering, and proper feeding is necessary to achieve this. In the present study, the effect of feeding with pollen sources of different protein content on colony performance, wintering ability and in-vitro longevity of colonies that weakened after feeding with pine honey in autumn, or that needed to enter the winter period, was investigated. The experiment was carried out in 48 colonies divided into six groups as follows: control, syrup, mixed pollen, Cistus creticus pollen (Pink rock-rose), Papaver somniferum pollen (Opium poppy), and commercial bee cake groups. In particular, the P. somniferum pollen group was different (p < 0.01) from the other experiment groups with the number of bee frames (3.44), the area with brood (1184.14 cm(2)) and the wintering ability of 92.19%. The effect of nutritional differences on survival was found to be statistically significant in vitro and this supports the colony results in the natural environment (p < 0.001). The P. somniferum group has the longest longevity with 23 days. Pollen preferences of honey bees were P. somniferum, C. creticus, and mixed pollen, respectively.Pollen Preferences of Honey bees [TAGEM/HAYSUD/B/20/A4/P5/1890]; Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM)This article was produced from the project The Pollen Preferences of Honey bees and the Effects of Pollen Use inWinter on Colony Dynamic (TAGEM/HAYSUD/B/20/A4/P5/1890) supported by The Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM)

Screening of genetic variability in Turkish maize landraces for protein and starch related traits

Local populations of maize are valuable resources to maintain the genetic variability within the species. Breedingprograms in many different countries try to characterize and exploit such germplasm. The objective of this studywas to evaluate 192 Turkish maize landraces for their variation in terms of protein ratio, the amino acids that affectthe protein quality, starch ratio as well as its fractions. Field experiment was carried out at the Crop Research andApplication Unit of ÇanakkaleOnsekiz Mart University Agricultural Faculty Farm, and used and augmented designwith 6 blocks. Each block contained 32 landraces and 7 standard hybrids. Data were collected on protein, lysine,tryptophan, starch, amylose, and amylopectin content. Analysis of variance was run, and genetic calculationswere utilized to determine the heritability values. The results suggested that Turkish maize landraces possess aconsiderable variation for protein and starch traits. The ranges determined for protein, starch, amylose, amylopectin,lysine, and tryptophan were 6.56-16.50%, 56.38-79.63%, 2.09-35.25%, 64.75-97.91%, 0.12-0.93%, and0.03-0.09%, respectively. The broad sense heritability values for the investigated traits were between 16-53%.Several landraces were detected to be superior to the standard varieties for some traits and considered to bevaluable genetic material for the breeding studies to come