Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture)

Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture)

The effect of feeding with rapeseed, corn, and date pollen on biological and physiological characteristics of Iranian honey bees, Apis mellifera meda

Document Type : Research paper-Persian

Authors
R. Chenari
A. Rasekh
S. A. Hemmati
Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
10.22055/ppr.2026.52373.1893
Abstract
Background and Objectives
Honey bees demand substances such as proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals for their survival, growth, and reproduction. These compounds are mainly supplied to honeybees from flower pollen. This well indicates the importance of pollen in the life of honeybees. This study explored the effect of feeding six different pollen diets, including rapeseed, date, corn, and their mixtures, on the biological and physiological characteristics of the Iranian honey bee, Apis mellifera meda (Hym., Apidae).
Materials and Methods
This study was conducted for 35 days in a breeding cage (disposable plastic cup) at a temperature of 29±1°C and a humidity of 60 to 70% in a germinator. In each cage, 50 newly emerged worker bees had access to honey syrup (natural bee honey and water, in a 1:1 ratio) and water, in addition to the corresponding pollen diet. In a subsequent experiment, the pollen food preference of worker bees towards different pollen treatments (including 6 pollen diets, similar to the previous experiment) was ascertained under natural conditions (Southwest of Iran, Ahvaz), under choice (treatments concurrently) and non-choice access (treatments separately on different days). To undertake the experiments, Iranian honey bee hives with 8 population frames were employed. In each diet, 1.2 g of pollen was provided to the bees in three Petri dishes (each containing 0.7 g). Petri dishes containing pollen were placed in a tray and placed on a table (one meter high) 10 meters away from the hives. Every two hours (8, 10, 12, and 2 p.m.), photographs were taken of each Petri dish with the number of bees attracted to each dish (containing pollen from different treatments) counted further.
Results
According to the findings, the highest consumption on all days belonged to rapeseed pollen and the lowest consumption to the mixed diet of rapeseed pollen and corn. Workers fed only canola pollen weighed more than bees on other food treatments. After counting the daily mortality of bees in the cage, it was determined that the lowest number of deaths was linked to bees that had been fed rapeseed pollen (6 percent) and the highest mortality to the corn pollen diet (69 percent). The area of hypopharyngeal glands was influenced by the type of pollen diet, determined in the first seven days of rearing and remained unchanged with increasing age. Bees that fed on rapeseed pollen revealed significantly higher levels of hypopharyngeal glands. Adding other pollens (date or corn) in small amounts (20%) or combining these two pollens (10% each) with rapeseed pollen resulted in a significant reduction in the level of hypopharyngeal glands (approximately threefold), compared to the rapeseed pollen treatment alone. It appears that small amounts of other low-quality pollen in the diet can have an inhibitory effect on the growth of the hypopharyngeal glands. By inspecting the size of the rectal surface, it was determined that the type of pollen diet had no impact on rectal size. A comparison of the protease enzyme activity of midgut extracts from worker bees fed different pollen diets demonstrated that the highest amount of protease activity was observed in the midgut of worker bees fed a mixture of "rapeseed and corn pollen." The lowest protease activity was also noted when consuming a mixture of all three types of pollen (rapeseed, date, and corn pollen). The results of choice and non-choice access tests of hives to different pollen diets under natural conditions indicated that in both access conditions, the consumption of date pollen and corn pollen was higher compared to other pollen diets.
Discussion
The results of the present study exhibit a significant effect of the type of pollen diet on the biological and physiological characteristics of worker bees, based on which rapeseed pollen was identified as the highest quality pollen. Nevertheless, under both choice and non-choice access conditions in nature, foraging worker bees consumed significantly higher amounts of date and corn pollen compared to canola pollen. This reveals that workers are attracted to the apparent attractiveness of pollen over its true value. These results demonstrate the significance of beekeepers' attention to providing high-quality pollen in sufficient quantity for hives.
Keywords
Pollen preference
Percentage of mortality
rectum hypopharyngeal glands
Protease activity
Subjects
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 © 2026 by the authors. Licensee SCU, Ahvaz, Iran. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0 license) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture)
Volume 49, Issue 2
Spring 2026
Pages 17-38