Department of Entomology & Agricultural Zoology, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur)-848 125, Bihar (India).
The three artificial diets contained variable quantities of different ingredients, viz., soy bean meal (25 g), yeast powder (10 g), skimmed milk powder (5 g), natural pollen (15 g), sugar (22.5 g), honey (22.5 g), ground gram flour (sattu) (15 g),. pollen of dorsata comb (15 g) and glycerine (1 ml). Out of nine ingredients, the first diet contained all of them except that ground gram flour and pollen of dorsata comb. In the second diet, honey, natural pollen and pollen of dorsata comb were not included but the quantity of sugar was increased from 22.5 to 45 g and the quantity of ground gram flour (sattu) was 15 g. In the third diet, natural pollen, sugar and ground gram flour (sattu) were not added, but the quantity of honey was increased to 45 g and also 15 g pollen grains of dorsata comb were mixed. The control diet consisted of only natural flora. These diets were separately fed once in a week to the Apis mellifera colonies during dearth period (May to October, 1994). The observations revealed that the colonies fed on artiflcial diets developed better than those colonies fed only on natural flora. Among the different artificial diets, the first diet had more number of frames with bees and brood (9.8/hive), area of pollen (566 cm1) and brood (1446 cm1) on frames in a colony, and the hOlley stores (3.2 kg/hive) followed by the third diet, and the lowest was in control diet. Thus, the quantity of each ingredient in the first artificial diet was suitable for the better maintenance of the colony during dearth period.
