Apicultura no Semiárido Paraibano: defensividade de abelhas africanizadas com e sem alimentação artificial, Cajazeiras - PB.

Abstract

The Africanization was responsible for many changes in the behavior of European honey bees, which inhabited in Brazil for some time. This study aimed to analyze the aggressiveness apis mellifera colonies in semiarid Paraiba. The survey was conducted in the municipality of Cajazeiras PB in an apiary District of Catole. The municipality is located in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil, in the state of Paraiba. The apiary is composed of 60 hives with swarms of Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera) and is installed in that place since 1983. All the boxes were listed in front of the nest to facilitate identification. 20 colonies were selected, 10 of these 20 were selected, which are provided in the artificial feeding, the other 10 colonies were not artificially fed. The tests were conducted in three stages comprising the months of August, October and December 2012. The parameters analyzed were to occur the first time in sting retail suede, number of stings left in black suede flap, the number of bees that attacked and were arrested in the container, the bees chase away the observer and time for the lull bees. For the time of occurrence for the first sting, the colony fed 24 took a little time to attack, indicating that more aggressive. For colonies not fed the colony 26 showed the greater number of bees attacking in the first 60s. For colonies fed no difference between the colony 40 and 46, 46 being the colony that had a greater number of bees attacked. Distance traveled to the colony 14 was not fed that chased the observer at a distance greater with an average of 436,8 m , while for the 49 colonies fed the colony that was pursued to a greater distance reaching 488,3 m . Defensiveness studies demonstrated that differences exist in the level of defensiveness of apis mellifera colonies studied, more study is needed to better analyze the defensiveness of bees in the semiarid Paraiba.