Beneficial efeects of feeding of neem fruit pulp syrup to honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies during floral dearth

Bee keeping industry is suffering with non availability of nectar and pollen during lean period of June and July. During this period ripe neem fruits and its pulp are available but pulp is wasted in nature, which has tempted us to feed the bee colony in the dearth. Neem fruits pulp was extracted and mixed in sugar syrup (1:2:1, ripe neem fruit pulp: water: sugar) to prepare the neem fruit pulp syrup for feeding of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. This syrup was used as a substitute of nectar and pollen as well as natural food source for feeding of bee colony during floral dearth. The highest increased brood and honey storage areas of the neem fruit pulp syrup and sucrose syrup fed colonies were found to be 64.67 and 58.41%; 26.67 and 28.02%, which were about 2.42 and 2 times more than sugar syrup fed colonies, respectively. This feeding of ripe neem fruits pulp mixed in the sugar syrup increased the production of honey and multiplication of bee colonies, which were about 2 times and 2.5 times more than control and only sugar (sucrose) syrup fed colonies, respectively.