Honeybee nutrition and pollen substitutes: A review

Like other invertebrates, honey bees too are poikilothermic animals; they cannot regulate their body temperature and they have to undergo a period of inactivation when atmospheric temperature is un-tolerable. During this period, their nutritional requirements and metabolic activities are minimized due to highly restricted foraging activities. The egg-laying by queen and rearing of unsealed and sealed brood are decreased, however their extent is governed by the quantum of stored food available. The problems of deleterious influence of adverse weather conditions and non-availability of bee flora all round the year, in a particular locality, have been realized by the researchers/beekeepers and migration concept has been developed to solve this problem. But again, migration itself is not an easy task. The provision of artificial feeding as an alternate of migration. Scientists all over the world have formulated different artificial food recepies for bees on the basis of nutrient composition of honey and pollen, acceptability, palatability, digestibility and affordability of ingredients. This may help to maintain all colony parameters enough to derive maximum advantage of forthcoming floral rich season. However, a standard balanced diet for commercial beekeeping that is accepted worldwide is still awaited.