Characteristics of african honeybee colonies (<em>Apis mellifera</em>) L. in nature, in Jaboticabal - SP

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to observe characteristics of African honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera Apidae) swarms collected in nature, for 16 years (1981 to 1996), in Jaboticabal, state of São Paulo -Brasil. During the collection, location, presence of queen, position of the swarms in the nature (exposed or housed), brood and food area, aggressiveness and quantity of honeybees were evaluated. The position of the combs was observed in relation to entrance of the beehive, classifying them in perpendicular and parallel. 51.43% of the swarms were collected in Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, especially in reforestation area and nature reserve. Only 18.6% of the swarms were exposed and 81.4% were housed inside cavities. In housed swarms, the honeybees preferred to install their swarms under roofs (30.0%), hollows of trees (20.0%), inside cement cavities (12.9%) and in soil hollows (10.0%). The honey bees were not aggressive in 86.2% of the collected swarms and preferred to build their combs in perpendicular position (70.4%) to the entrance of the beehive in relation to the parallel one (29.6%). Regarding the amount of individuals, brood and food, we observed that 54.7% of the 70 swarms had a lot of bees, 43.9% had medium area of brood and 51.7% presented little area of food. The queen was observed in half of the collected swarms (56.4%).