Avaliação de colônias de Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: apidae) para a produção de própolis na Baía do Iguape, Bahia

Abstract

Beekeeping is a sustainable practice that adds income to beekeepers and helps keep the community of plants, from which the bees depend to collect food resources and nesting. Propolis is a resinous substance produced by bees from buds and plant secretions resins, it has healing power because it has a chemical and complex profile. This study aimed to evaluate the propolis production potential in the Bay of Iguape, Bahia, Brazil. Each apiary consisted of 15 colonies of Apis mellifera, housed in standard Langstroth hives with supers fitted with the device to collect propolis, known as Collector of Intelligent propolis (CPI). Weekly collections of deposited propolis were performed on these devices. For the analysis of the data was performed the Kruskal-Wallis test 5%. The brightness data were performed on annual period, repeating in two periods of the day, at 10am and at 3pm for each colony. According to the results, it was found that the average production of propolis between apiaries was 67,09g/month in the study period did not differ statistically. There was a significant difference in brightness between the apiaries with averaging of 5612,3 lux; 24902,23 lux; 3837,47 lux. The Bay Iguape has the potential to produce propolis, but breeding programs of the colonies, involving the selection of queens with propolizadora fitness offspring should be implemented in the region.