The use of polydisperse chitosan as a stimulating food additive for bees

Abstract

The research aim was to determine the influence of the use of chitosan in stimulant food on immunity and winter resistance, early development, and productivity of bee colonies. The investigations were carried out on the families of Carpathian bees from the apiary in the village of Seliște, Nisporeni district, which were maintained in two-body beehives with 10 combs each with the dimensions of the frames of 435x300 cm. Polydisperse chitosan was obtained by depolymerization of commercially available natural chitosan, and represented as an aqueous solution with a mass fraction of 3% of the substance. It was revealed that the optimal dose of using polydisperse chitosan in bee feed is 2.0 ml of 3%/L sugar syrup solution.