Temperament of Ethiopian honeybees

Amssalu Bezabeh 1, Esubalew Shitaneh 2 and Emana Getu 3

1 Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, Holeta Bee Research Center, P.O.Box 22, Holeta, Ethiopia.
2 Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Pawe Agricultural Research Center, P.O.Box 25, Pawe, Ethiopia.
3 Addis Ababa University, Collage of Natural and Computational Science Department of Zoological Science, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
 
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2023, 08(02), 185–192.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2023.8.2.0229
Publication history: 
Received on 05 February 2023; revised on 17 March 2023; accepted on 20 March 2023
 
Abstract: 
Information on the relative defensive behavior variations of Ethiopian bees and factors associated with temperament variation is not available. The objective of this study was to identify the temperament conditions of these honeybee populations. Two hundred forty farmer beekeepers from 57 localities were interviewed based on pre-structured questionnaire to determine aggressive behavior of Ethiopian honeybees, seasons and factors responsible for heightening their aggressiveness. The aggression rate of Ethiopian honeybee groups were determined for 3001 honeybee colonies and analyzed using Kruskal-wallis ANOVA. The aggressiveness varies among honeybee groups. Apis mellifera jemenitica honeybees are highly aggressive while Apis mellifera monticolla honeybees are relatively docile. The seasons of the year in which aggressiveness enhanced also vary both within and between honeybee groups depending on climatic conditions of their respective areas. The aggression generally heightens when nectar and pollen are abundantly available which is associated with honey flow and harvest and brooding periods. Attacks of enemies are also found the primary factor enhancing the aggression behavior across all honeybee groups. Aggression rate is significant and positively correlated with temperature and negatively with altitude. Generally lowland and southern region honeybees are more aggressive than highlands and northern region honeybees. 
 
Keywords: 
Aggressiveness; Ethiopia; Honeybees; Races; Seasons
 
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