Comparing weight dynamics between urban and rural honey bee colonies in Latvia
Laen...
Kuupäev
2023
Kättesaadav alates
Autorid
Komasilova, O.
Zacepins, A.
Kviesis, A.
Komasilovs, V.
Ozols, N.
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Abstrakt
Beekeeping is an important agricultural industry in Latvia, which has an area of
64,589 km2 and is largely mixed forest. The natural foraging base does not provide the honey
yield evenly throughout the whole season, thus the average honey yield in Latvia is about 20 kg
per colony. The objective of this research was to compare the weight dynamics of colonies placed
in rural and urban environments. As urban beekeeping is becoming more popular, it is important
to understand whether there are enough foraging resources within the city for the bee colonies.
To do this, the weight changes of ten honey bee colonies was remotely monitored and analysed
during the summer period. Five colonies were located in the rural environment in Vecauce and
five in the urban environment in Jelgava city. Colonies were assessed using the precision
beekeeping approach and developed scale systems. It was concluded that for rural colonies in
Vecauce, the main weight increase occurred in June - from 41.02 to 54.68 kg - which resulted in
94% of the total increase for the summer period. Data analysis from the urban apiary revealed
that colonies increase weight during the entire monitoring period, indicating that there are
foraging resources available throughout the summer period within the city.
Kirjeldus
Received: January 16th, 2023 ; Accepted: April 8th, 2023 ; Published: April 17th, 2023 ; Correspondence: aleksejs.zacepins@lbtu.lv
Märksõnad
precision beekeeping, weight monitoring, urban beekeeping, foraging activity, articles