A Research on the Breeding Activities of Organic Beekeeping Enterprises

Abstract

With its low investment cost, beekeeping is an important agricultural activity that can be done without being connected to the soil and allows beekeepers to increase their income levels in a short time. On the other hand, organic beekeeping is a production model made only with allowed inputs without using drugs that are harmful to human health and whose every stage is controlled and certified from production to consumption. This study, it was aimed to examine the structure and production activities of organic beekeeping enterprises. The primary material of the study was data collected from 118 organic beekeeping enterprises. It was determined that 50.70% of the enterprises obtained the queen bee by natural methods, 23.4% by larva transfer, 26.6% from commercial queen bee enterprises, and 64.52% used pure Caucasian or Caucasian hybrid bee races in their colonies. The annual colony loss of the enterprises was 19.44%, and it was observed that colony loss was 50% higher in enterprises that obtained the queen bee commercially and bred it by natural means compared to enterprises that transferred larvae. It was determined that enterprises that considered organic beekeeping as the first profession had a higher number of colonies (P=0.007) and 25% fewer colony losses (P=0.088) than enterprises that saw it in the second and third orders. Finally, it was found that 53.69% of enterprises made additional feeding only with honey they produced, and the production of other organic bee products other than honey in enterprises was very limited.

Keywords

• honey
• Organic beekeeping
• pollen
• production
• transition period

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