Honeybee drones are known to only have a reproductive function. In the current study, the
drone’sactivities as affected by feeding with pollen substitutes were studied during two successive years
2020/2021 and 2021/2022. The effect of seven pollen substitutes patties on broad rearing and body weight
(larvae and adult) as well as fertility (semen volume and sperm count) of Apis mellifera droneswas studied.
Changes in these activities across months and seasonsof the two years of study observed. During the autumn and
summer the bee drones showed highly broad rearingboth years. Whereas, during September the honeybee
colonies were found to be more active in consumingall used patties than other months in both years. Finally,
regarding the drone’s fertility, the patty contained glycerol was the best one for all fertility parameters, semen
volume was 1.28 mL, sperm count/ mL was 2.77 (×109)and sperm count/ one drone was 3.10 (×106)which
confirm our hypothesis that the artificial feeding with pollen substitute may affect the drone’s activities. |
