Agricultural producers apply numerous technological procedures, and enlarging efforts to produce the high-quality products. This initiative is present in the beekeeping, too. The quality of the honey produced by the honey bee colonies depends of various factors, but prevailing are the ecological conditions and the floristic composition of the honeyfull plants. The aim of our research was to discover the influence of the beehive type on the quality of honey, which is produced at apiaries under the similar environmental conditions. The whole studied honey bee colonies belong to the European race, Apis mellifera carnica, and they used the same honeyfull plants pastures. The results indicate that different beehive type used at apiaries influenced on the quality of honey

Drago Bešlo

Ivana Tucak

Marin Periškić

Zvonimir Tucak

English

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Coll. Antropol. 28 (2004) 1: 463–467UCD 638:591.5Original scientific paperInfluence of the Beehive Typeon the Quality of HoneyZvonimir Tucak¹, Marin Peri{ki}², Drago Be{lo¹ and Ivana Tucak³¹ Faculty of Agriculture, University »J. J. Strossmayer«, Osijek, Croatia² Croatian Veterinary Institute, Veterinary Department in Vinkovci, Vinkovci, Croatia³ Faculty of Low, University »J. J. Strossmayer«, Osijek, CroatiaA B S T R A C TAgricultural producers apply numerous technological procedures, and enlarging ef-forts to produce the high-quality products. This initiative is present in the beekeeping,too. The quality of the honey produced by the honey bee colonies depends of various fac-tors, but prevailing are the ecological conditions and the floristic composition of thehoneyfull plants. The aim of our research was to discover the influence of the beehivetype on the quality of honey, which is produced at apiaries under the similar environ-mental conditions. The whole studied honey bee colonies belong to the European race,Apis mellifera carnica, and they used the same honeyfull plants pastures. The resultsindicate that different beehive type used at apiaries influenced on the quality of honey.Key words: beehive, honey, ecological factors, diseaseIntroductionThe Croatian Ministry of Agricultureand Forestry issued the Regulation con-cerning the quality of honey and otherapiaric products in the Republic of Cro-atia. Honey and other products originat-ed from honey bee colonies, must be inconcordance with standards of quality, asthe pre-condition for the sale on mar-ket1–8.The aim of our research was to deter-mine the influence of the beehive type onthe quality of honey. The samples for theanalyses of honey were taken at the api-aries in Vukovar-Srijem County (EasternSlavonija).Material and MethodsTwo types of beehive were used as theresearch objects. Alberti-@nider{i} (A-@),and Langstroth-Root (L-R) beehive, whichare widely used by the Croatian beekee-pers. The honeybee brood obtained foodand nutrients by visiting various species463Received for publication January 29, 2004of the honey vegetables: Oil-seed Rape(Brassica oleracea subsp. Oleifera), Fal-se-acacia (Robinia pseudacacia), Limetree (Tilia spp.), Horse-chestnut (Aescu-lus hippocastanum), Sunflower (Helian-thus annuus) Goldenrod (Solidago spp.),Mint (Mentha spp.), False indigo (Amor-pha fruticosa), Meadow Sage (Salvia pra-tensis) and other meadow plants9–11.For the Nosema disease detection, sam-pled material (30 dead honeybees fromthe beehive's floor – winter mortality),was crushed in the mortar, adding 1 ml ofwater. A drop of the suspension wastransferred by the pipette on a micro-scopic slide, covered by a cover glass andanalyzed under microscope magnification.The spores of Nosema apis have elongateand oval shape with thick mantle dis-rupting the light intensity12–14.Fort the confirmation of Varroa mitehoneybee parasite, samples consistingthe waste from the beehive's floor weredried overnight in the thermostat. Afterthat, the material was sieved – first witha sieve which holes are 2 mm² in diame-ter, then with a sieve with 1 mm² diame-ter holes.A small portion of the material re-mained after the second sieving was puton the microscopic slide and analyzed un-der the microscope searching for the pres-ence of parasite14.Chemical determination of honeyThe invert (glucose + fructose) has beendetermined by the volumetric methodwith the Fehlings solution by Bertrand.This method is based on the proceeding,that the copper-oxidul (Cu2O) is dissolvedwith the sour solution Feri-amonium sul-phate ((NH4)Fe(SO4)2) where Cu2, whichis titraded with 0.1 M KMnO4. From thegot volume of KMnO4 you calculate theCu amounts and of the calculated Cu yousee in the table the invert quantity. Theachieved data of the invert amounts bythe Rules of Republic of Croatia and theEuropean union about the honey qualityand the quality of other bee-products.All foreseen data give us the fact, thequality of honey gained on the territory ofSlavonija and Baranja fulfils all lawnorms of the Republic of Croatia and theEuropean union, which has to say, thatthis area is good for the production branch,having in mind, that Slavonija and Ba-ranja is very low, and more so because allnatural sources for a greater productionare existing here.The entire proteins have been deter-mined by modified method of the Biureticreaction Folin-Zowry with a Follin-Cio-caltean reagent. The gained concentra-tion of the entire Proteins vary in theframe of 3 – 0.3%. Having in mind, thatthis are various kinds of honey and thatthe samples are taken from a wider areaof locations, this data says to us, that thequality and taste of honey are conditio-ned by the pasturage place, where beesgather the honey.Water content was determined by themethod of HPLC10,15.Results and DiscussionUsing the standard methods for thedetermination of the quality of honey weare convinced, that they are in depend-ence from the climate (Figure 1) andother ecological factors the honey blos-soms, the kind of bees and also of the bee-hive type. The honey quality, with itsproperties (color, smelt and taste) andalso by the content of proteins, invert,water and other parameters, correspondswith its quality with the norms of theRules of Republic of Croatia and the Eu-ropean Union.The incidence of the illness at beehivewas as usual (Table 1). The illness has noimpact on quality of the honey, becausethe infected individuals in the honey beebrood doesn't produce honey16,17.464Z. Tucak et al.: Influence of the Beehive Type, Coll. Antropol. 28 (2004) 1: 463–467The following hypothesis that arith-metic means (Table 2) of the quality ofhoney are identical for two beehive types(L-R and A-@) were tested:H0 : 1 = 2 at the significance level 5%Alternative hypothesis is: HA : 1  2x f Qi ii1 111476698  . ,121 1 121147107   f Q xii( ) . ,x f Qi ii2 211936916  . ,222 1 2211931 88   f Q xii( ) . .If we tested the hypothesis abut theequality of arithmetic means at signifi-cance level 5%, then, if x1 – x2 = –2.18 fallinto interval: (–1.96s  1.96s) where:sn n   1212220131. ,the hypothesis H0 is accepted, which meansthat difference in the quality of honey arenot statistically significant at significan-ce level 5%.However, -2.18 falls further out of theinterval (–0.257, 0.257), and hypothesisH0 has to be rejected.At the significance level 5%, statisti-cally significant is difference in the qual-ity of honey in dependence of the variousbeehive type (L-R, A-@).The A-@ beehive type is characterizedby the statistically significant higherquality of honey.465Z. Tucak et al.: Influence of the Beehive Type, Coll. Antropol. 28 (2004) 1: 463–46750air temperaturerainfalls150Vukovar, 2002annual average: 12.8 C, 610 mmo 1301109070503010-10oC403020100I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XIImmmonthFig. 1. Climatic diagram according to Walter for the meteorologicalstationVukovar and Vinkovci.TABLE 1THE HONEYBEE ILLNES DETECTED AT DIFERENT TYPES OF BEEHIVEBeehivetypeNumber ofexaminedsamplesHoneybee illnessNosema disease Varroa diseaseN % N %A@ 193 55 28.50 165 85.50LR 147 78 53.10 127 86.40R E F E R E N C E S1. CROW, J. F., M. KIMURA: An introduction topopulation genetics theory. (Burgess Publishing Co.,Minneapolis, 1970). — 2. LAIDLAW, H. H., Organiza-tion and operation of a bee breeding program. In: Pro-ceedings. (10th International Congress of Entomology.Vol. 4., 1956). — 3. LAIDLAW, H. H., J. E. ECKERT:Queen rearing. (Dadant and Sons, Hamilton, 1950).— 4. LAIDLAW, H. H., R. E. PAGE, Mating designs.In: RINDERER, T. E. (Ed.): Bee genetics and breed-ing. (Academic Press, Orlando, 1986). — 5. ROTHEN-BUHLER, W. C., Ann. Rev. Entomol., 3 (1958) 161. —6. RUTTNER, F., G. KOENIGER, Z. Vgl. Physiol., 72(1971) 411. — 7. GRAHAM, J. M.: The hive and thehoney bee. (Dadant Publication, Hamilton, 2000). —8. MORSE, R. A.: Bees and beekeeping. (CornellUniv. Press, Ithaca, 1975). — 9. RINDERER, T. E., J.Apic. Res., 21 (1982) 74. — 10. TUCAK, Z., D. BE-[LO, D. [UBARI], M. CRNJAC, Z. PU[KADIJA,Acta Agraria Kaposväriensis, 3 (1999) 255. — 11. TU-CAK, Z., A. TUCAK, Z. PU[KADIJA, M. TUCAK,Agricultur., 6 (2000) 129. — 12. BAILEY, L., BeeWorld, 34 (1953) 171. — 13. GILLIAM, M., S. TABER,G. W. RICHARDSON, Apidologie, 14 (1983) 29. — 14.RITTER, W., F. RUTTNER, Allgemeine Deutsche Im-kerzeitung, 5 (1980) 134. — 15. TUCAK, Z., Z. PU-[KADIJA, D. BE[LO, @. BUKVI], Z. MILAKOVI]:Chemical organic-leptic honey determination in ho-ney-herbs in the region Slavonia and Baranja. (Fac-ulty of Biotechnology, University of Ljubljana, 1998).— 16. TUCAK, Z., M. PERI[KI], M. KRZNARI], V.FEHER-BELAJ, S. OZIMEC, I. TUCAK, ActaAgraria Kaposväriensis, 6 (2002) 93. — 17. TUCAK,Z., Coll. Antropol., 27 (2003) 387.Z. TucakFaculty of Agriculture, University »J. J. Strossmayer«, P. O. Box 719, Trg Sv. Trojstva 3,31000 Osijek, Croatia466Z. Tucak et al.: Influence of the Beehive Type, Coll. Antropol. 28 (2004) 1: 463–467TABLE 2INFLUENCE OF THE BEEHIVE TYPES ON THE QUALITY OF HONEYNumber LR A@ Glucose +fructoseTotalproteins (%)Water(%)1 8 69.5 0.8 0.12 2 69.5 0.8 0.13 92 66.3 0.27 0.34 25 67.3 0.3 0.25 20 68.7 0.24 0.36 2 69.5 0.8 0.17 109 70.1 0.3 0.28 36 66.45 0.22 0.39 18 69.5 0.8 0.110 28 68.7 0.24 0.3UTJECAJ TIPA KO[NICA NA KVALITETU MEDAS A @ E T A KU posljednje vrijeme proizvo|a~i koriste}i brojne tehnologije ula`u velike napore dabi proizveli {to kvalitetniji proizvod. Takva tendencija nazo~na je i u p~elarskoj proiz-vodnji. Kvaliteta (sekreta) meda, kojeg proizvodi p~elinja zajednica u ovisnosti je odbrojnih ~imbenika, prvenstveno ekolo{kih uvjeta i vrste medonosnog bilja. Na{ radimao je za cilj otkriti utjecaj tipa ko{nice na kvalitetu meda koju proizvodi p~elinjazajednica u istim ekolo{kim uvjetima. Sve p~ele kori{tene u istra`ivanju pripadajueuropskoj rasi p~ela Apis mellifera carinicarace i koristile su istu medonosnu pa{u uprehrani. Rezultati istra`ivanja ukazuju da razli~iti tipovi ko{nica utje~u na kvalitetumeda kojeg producira p~elinja zajednica.467Z. Tucak et al.: Influence of the Beehive Type, Coll. Antropol. 28 (2004) 1: 463–467

Influence of the Beehive Type on the Quality of Honey

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