Impact of Weather on Yield Attributing Characters of Artificially and Naturally Inseminated Colonies of Apis mellifera L. and Apis cerana indica F.

Abstract

Experiment conducted to study the impact of weather parameters on brood area, pollen area and nectar area of artificially inseminated and naturally inseminated colonies of Apis mellifera L. and Apis cerana indica F. during April’16 to March’18. Investigation revealed significant negative correlation of brood area (r= -0.57 in both AI and NI colonies) of A. mellifera L., during 2016-17 and nectar area (r = -0.71 in AI and r= - 0.70 in NI colonies) with maximum temperature and maximum relative humidity, respectively. Whereas, pollen area having significant positive correlation with bright sunshine hours (0.83 in AI and 0.84 in NI colonies) and significant negative correlation with maximum temperature (r = -0.89 in AI and r= - 0.88 in NI colonies) and total rainfall (r = -0.57 in AI and r= - 0.60 in NI colonies). During 2017-18, pollen area showed positive significant correlation with maximum relative humidity (r = 0.57 in AI and r= 0.60 in NI colonies) and negatively significant correlation with maximum temperature (r = -0.87 in AI and r= - 0.90 in NI colonies) and total rainfall (r = -0.74 in AI and r= - 0.76 in NI colonies). Nectar area having negatively significant correlation with maximum relative humidity (r = -0.74 in AI and r= - 0.77 in NI colonies). However, A. c. indica F. revealed significant negative correlation of brood area (r = -0.58 in AI and r= - 0.60 in NI colonies) and nectar area(r = -0.66 in AI and r= - 0.70 in NI colonies) with maximum relative humidity during 2017-18.