On-Station Evaluation of Different Colored Light Source Batteries for Night Time Colony Management at Andassa Livestock Research Centre, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The test of different colored light was carried out Apiculture apiary site of Andassa livestock research center with the aim of evaluating the response of the local honey bees to different colored light source batteries to be used during night time internal colony inspections and to select less attractive colored light sources to the local honeybees during night time internal colony operations. The experiment was conducted with three different colored light, the first was produce ordinary white light and the other were modified to emit red light and blue light by fitting (covering) the round glass covers of each of the torches with a round piece of red and blue polythene sheets respectively. Three sheets of white cloth measuring 100 cm2 were obtained. This experiment was conducted RCBD design with six replications. Inspected honeybee colonies were selected and grouped as medium, strong and very strong based on the worker bee population and total internal hive area (number of combs) covered by the honey bees. The mean numbers of honey bees attracted to each colored light were: white light (263), blue (246.83) and red (89.33). The analysis of variance showed that there were a highly significance difference (0.0001, p ≤ 0.05) among different colored lights and Least significance difference (LSD) showed that no significance difference between white and blue light in relation to the number of honey bees attracted to each light. However, the number of honey bees attracted to the red light shows a highly significance difference as compared to white and blue light source batteries at p ≤ 0.05 significance level. The result also shown that the number of honey bees attracted to different colored light source batteries in medium, strong and very strong colonies were significant. Therefore, the use of red torch/battery/ light during colony management at night reduces the bee sting and aggressiveness of bees.

Keywords: Torchlight, colored light, night time colony Management