ABSTRACT

A study was conducted to assess the suitability of Indian bee hives, focusing on foraging activity, brood area, pollen area and honey storage activities from December 2023 to May 2024 at Biodiversity Park, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. The foraging activity was variable in both 6 and 8 frame hives. The Indian bees produced a mean brood area of 620.28 cm2 and 634.74 cm2 in 6 and 8 frame hives, respectively but 6 frame hives showed an early construction of brood area, suggesting a quicker frame-filling process compared to 8 frame hives which took more time for complete frame filling. However, both hives performed similar in pollen and honey storage activities with mean pollen storage area of 158.56 cm2 and 169.58 cm2, and mean honey storage area of 40.01 cm2 and 46.40 cm2 in 6 and 8 frame hives, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between the brood area and amount of pollen stored in the brood frames of 6 and 8 frame hives. The 6 frame hives found better in honey yielding with 1200 g per colony compared to low yield in 8 frame hives with 1000 g per colony. While bees took less time to fill the honey chamber in 6 frame hives compared to 8 frame hives. Additionally, the 6 frame hives exhibited lesser wax moth infestations than in 8 frame hives. The double queen hive colony exhibited lesser foraging activity, lower brood area, pollen area and honey storage activities compared to the single queen hive colony, resulting in a lower honey yield.