Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Lethbridge Research Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
J Econ Entomol. 2018 Aug 3;111(4):1535-1541. doi: 10.1093/jee/toy155.
We compare two different sizes of honey bee colony units: singles (one brood chamber) and doubles (two brood chambers) in hybrid seed canola pollination in southern Alberta in 2014 and 2015. Currently, canola seed production companies only contract double-brood chamber units to pollinate canola in southern Alberta, but it may be advantageous to the industry if singles could also be contracted for pollination, as they are in many other crops. To evaluate the differences between the colony units, we measured population size, nectar and pollen foraging, nectar and pollen load weights, pollen collection, and honey production. The colony populations of both the single- and double-brood chamber hives in this study were highly variable. In 2015, there was no difference between the single- and the double-brood chamber colonies in adult bee populations, and the singles had more sealed brood than did the double-brood chamber colonies. Our findings indicate that in comparison to doubles, on a per-frame basis, singles yield more pollen, more nectar foragers, similar or more pollen foragers, and similar amounts of honey. Therefore, we conclude that singles could be used to provide the same level of pollination services as doubles currently do in hybrid seed canola pollination, and growers should focus on receiving healthy populous colonies, regardless of the number of brood boxes.
我们比较了 2014 年和 2015 年艾伯塔省南部杂交油菜制种中两种不同大小的蜜蜂群体单元：单身（一个育雏室）和双体（两个育雏室）。目前，油菜制种公司只与双育雏室单位签订合同来给艾伯塔省南部的油菜授粉，但如果单身群体也可以签订授粉合同，这对该行业可能是有利的，因为在许多其他作物中已经这样做了。为了评估群体单元之间的差异，我们测量了种群大小、花蜜和花粉觅食、花蜜和花粉负荷重量、花粉收集和蜂蜜产量。本研究中单个和双育雏室蜂箱的蜂群种群变化很大。2015 年，单个和双育雏室蜂群的成蜂种群没有差异，而且单个蜂群的封盖卵比双育雏室蜂群多。我们的研究结果表明，与双体相比，在每个巢框的基础上，单体产生更多的花粉、更多的花蜜觅食者、相似或更多的花粉觅食者，以及相似数量的蜂蜜。因此，我们得出结论，单体可以用来提供与双体目前在杂交油菜制种中提供的相同水平的授粉服务，种植者应该专注于获得健康的群体单元，而不论育雏室箱的数量如何。
