The effect of a novel dietary supplement based on fishery industry waste hydrolysate, essential fatty acids and phytochemicals on honey bee nuclei development

Abstract

In the late winter or early spring, beekeepers stimulate the colonies to increase the population of bees using different dietary supplements, principally based on carbohydrates and proteins. Honey bees require multiple sources of nectar and pollen to obtain balanced nutrition, so the formulation of effective supplements requires the identification and testing of candidate components, especially at the colony-level. In this study, we evaluated the affectivity of a nutritional supplement (SUP) composed by two important phytochemicals that have been reported to improve honey bee health, abscisic acid (ABA) and p-coumaric acid (CUM), fish protein hydrolyzate (FPH), and essential omega fatty acids (Ω3/6) in nuclei colonies. We first evaluated the toxicity of SUP compared with the control (sugar syrup) in laboratory bioassays during 96 hours. Then, we tested the effect on the amount of brood, honey, and pollen in bee hives nuclei supplemented whit SUP during thirty days. In addition, we quantified and compared the concentration of total proteins in individual honey bees collected at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The results obtained show that SUP is palatable, non-toxic to Apis mellifera and significative increases the amount of open brood and pollen reserves of bee nuclei compared with nuclei feed with sugar syrup. No significant differences were observed, between nuclei feed with SUP and control nuclei, in the amount of honey reserves and total proteins of individual bees. Here, we show the value of a nutritional supplement that combines essential nutritional components and phytochemicals to improve important parameters associated with colony fitness. We expected this nutritional supplement helps beekeepers to develop their colonies in view of the increasement of industrial agriculture and the consequent loss of floral resources.