Foraging activity of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) in pollen collection were studied during spring and summer, 2012. The quantity and quality of the collected pollen were investigated.
The obtained results showed that over spring and summer seasons, the highest amount of trapped pollen (240.07 gram/colony/week) were recorded on August, when temperature was 35.02◦ C and relative humidity was 52%, however the lowest amount (13.38 gram/colony/week) was in April with temperature of 25.42◦ C and relative humidity 51%.
Concerning foraging activity of the experimental bees over the day, the results showed that the highest amounts of trapped pollen was recorded in the period between 10-12 a.m with average 11.22 g./colony represented 30.31%of the total pollen collected over the day ,followed by the period between 8-10 a.m with average 9.39 g./colony represented 25.36% . While the lowest amount of the collected pollen was found in the period between 4-6 p.m with average 2.61 g./colony which represented 7.04% of the total collected pollen.
On the other hand, results revealed that there were 13 different floral sources of pollen over the two seasons at the region of the study, where bees collected pollen of Zea mays by the highest percentage (46.79%), followed by Trifolium alexandrinum (30.68%), then Phoenix dactylifera (19.00%), however Cucurbita pepo recorded the lowest percentage (1.44%) of the total collected pollen.
Concerning the effect of beebread components on production of the brood area, results indicated to increasing the content of crude protein and crude lipids of the stored beebread was associated with increasing of the brood area in spring, however in summer the brood area decreased with decreasing the crude protein and moisture.
Chemical analysis of the trapped pollen showed that pollen of Helianthus annus recorded the highest level of moisture, crude protein, ash, reducing sugar and pH, while Phoenix dactylifera pollen recorded the highest amount of crude lipids and the lowest amount of ash and pH.