Bee Studies 2016, Vol 8, Num, 1     (Pages: 028-038)

THE INVESTIGATION OF HONEY BEE PREFERENCES BETWEEN BUCKWHEAT (Fagopyrum esculentum M.) AND PHACELIA (Phacelia tanacetifolia B.)

Şeref Cınbırtoğlu 1 ,Ahmet Kuvancı 1 ,Feyzullah Konak 1 ,Gürkan Demirkol 2

1 Arıcılık Araştırma Enstitüsü Müdürlüğü, Ordu
2 Ordu Üniversitesi, Ziraat Fakültesi, Tarla Bitkileri Bölümü, Ordu
Viewed : 1524 - Downloaded : 984 This study was conducted in the Apiculture Research Institute trial area in 2015. In the study, buckwheat and phacelia seeds were sown two seperate 100 m2 parcels with the plan of simultaneous flowering time. 3 pieces of bee colony were placed the area of parcels before flowering. The number of bee visitings were counted in flowering period on 1 m2 field area 5 minutes at 09:00, 12:00 and 15:00 hours simultaneously. While honey bees visited buckwheat average 22.02 times/m2, they visited phacelia average70.26 times/m2. In a day the highest visiting value was seen at 09:00, average 61.03 times/m2 and it is followed by average 43.46 adet/m2 at 12:00. The lowest visiting value was seen at 15:00, average 32.94 adet/m2. In this study which conducted in Ordu ecological conditions, it was determined that buckwheat is less preferred than phacelia by honey bees. Keywords : Honeybee, blooming, phacelia, buckwheat, pollen morphology