Some Modified Methods for Bee Propolis Production in Honeybee Colonies (Hymenoptera, Apis mellifera L.) under Egyptian Condition

Abstract

The current study was conducted to evaluate three different types of bee propolis-collection traps in propolis production in addition traditional method during the experimental period extended from July, 2017 until June, 2018. Two different locations were chosen for this study; New Valley governorate (El-Hindaw village, Dakhla region) and in Qalyubia governorate (Kalama village, Qalyub region). The results showed that, (Type2) trap "Hand-cut fiber screens with holes 1 mm." outperformed all other types of bee-collection traps in terms of the amount of bee propolis produced, followed by (Type 1) trap " Glass slides", then (Type 3) trap " Hand-cut plastic screens with holes 2 mm", while the lowest amount of bee propolis collected was in traditional method (hand collection). The results also revealed that, the highest amount of bee propolis collected was in July with an average of 11.19 and 5.96 gm/colony in the New Valley and Qalyubia governorates, respectively. Regarding the season, summer season significantly had the highest amounts of bee propolis produced with an average of 8.46 and 4.87 gm/colony, while the autumn season had the lowest amounts of bee propolis produced with an average of 1.61 and 0.83 gm/colony in the New Valley and Qalyubia governorates, respectively. It can be concluded that, the highest annual average of the collected bee propolis /colony was obtained with (Type, 2) trap 5.68 and 3.57 gm, while the lowest annual average was recorded in traditional method with an average of 3.75 and 1.93 gm/colony in the New Valley and Qalyubia governorates, respectively.