Factors of honeybee colony performances on sunflower at apiary scale

Abstract

An observatory of honeybee colonies ( Apis mellifera ), consisting of at least 200 colonies, divided into 10 apiaries of 20 colonies, was monitored for three years on sunflower honeyflow (2015–2017). The purpose of this observatory is to understand which factors control colony performance during sunflower honeyflow in south-western France. From the temporal dynamics of weight gain, statistical analysis reveals a hierarchy of factors. First, variability in apiary scale performance is an image of the effect of resource variability. But, in addition to this primordial factor, two other factors contribute very significantly to performance. On the one hand, the amount of capped brood and the number of bees at the time of the installation of the apiary: these two elements testify to the vitality of the colony. The second remarkable factor is the Varroa load, which strongly penalizes performance beyond a certain threshold. The negative effect of the Varroa load on the colony performance is minimized in case of abondant sunflower honey flow.