سالم مرمضی

There are many factors that affected the activities and foraging behavior of honey bee colonies. In the present study, the effects of temperature changes in Bushehr province (Borazjan city) during the end of February until the middle of July were examined on the activities of honey bees in front of the hive. The dependent variable was the number of worker bees in a minute that go through to collect nectar and pollen that recorded at five times on each day at 7:00, 9:30, 12:00, 14:30 and 17:00. These records were conducted every two weeks from end-February to mid-July. In the statistical model the temperatures, recording times, amount of colony populations and their interactions were considered as fixed effects. The results were indicated that all main factors had significant effects on the number of honey bee workers (p < 0.01) but the interactions between these factors were not significant. The outcomes revealed that with increasing temperature the activities of workers were significantly decreased in the front of the hive. Also, when the temperature was over 40 ° C, the foraging behavior of honey bee workers were completely stopped, and at a temperature above 50 ° C highest mortality was observed in honey bee colonies so that 75 percent of colonies were dying. In conclusion, we can say that the honey bee foraging behavior were affected by environmental temperature changes, and in response to temperature increasing, although some colonies were indicated resistance but the mortality rate was very high.