Honey Bee Colonies Performance Enhance By Newly Modified Beehives

Journal Article

Ghamdi, Ahmad Al Khazim Al . 2013

• المجلة \ الصحيفة: Journal Of Apicultural Science
• رقم العدد: 2
• رقم الإصدار السنوي: 57
• الصفحات: 45-57

مستخلص المنشور

The standard Langstroth beehive is commonly
used in beekeeping around the world. However,
the challenges of environmental conditions,
especially extremely hot or cold weather, have
caused many researchers to suggest modifications
to the standard beehive. Some standard
beehive modifications have enhanced the performance
of honey bees under cold conditions.
Some examples of these cold-based modifications
are heated and heated-fan beehives
(Erdogan et al., 2009), beehives containing
a device to control the temperature during the
winter season (Omran, 2011), and beehives
with an automatic system and complex control
architecture to improve the wintering process
of the honey bees (Zacepins and Stalidzans,
2012). Other modifications have been carried
out to boost the performance of honey bee
colonies under excessively hot conditions.
Beehives with BeeCool devices, which contain
solar-powered fans, (Al-Kahtani, 2003) are an
example of heat-based modifications. Altun
(2012) developed a solar-powered system to
control temperature and humidity within the
beehives to provide the bees with optimal
conditions. Other changes have been made to
standard beehives for other purposes, such as
changes to facilitate honey bee feeding (Abou-
Shaara, 2011), for controlling small hive beetles
(Ellis et al., 2003), to facilitate the collection
of honey bee eggs (Omholt et al., 1995), for
monitoring colony environments via large
controlled containers (Ohashi et al., 2008), or
the use of two-frame observation hives. A glass
box and wooden frame (Ohashi et al., 2009)
enable the monitoring of honey bee activities in
such hives (Meitalovs et al., 2009).