Scientific Reports of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine

The aim of the research was to improve the technology of keeping bee families and their use for honey harvesting from sunflower in the conditions of Zhytomyr Polissya. During the research, commonly used methods were used. On the principle of group-analogues, 3 groups of bee families of Ukrainian breed were formed, which were kept in unified multifunctional hives (n=4) with two-year-old queen bees. To assess the dynamics of development and productivity of bee families, it was determined the egg production of bees, the number of brood and honey productivity. According to the results of the study of the development of bee families at the beginning of the season it was found that in the early spring, the families of bees did not differ significantly in terms of productive indicators. In April, the bee families of the control group were significantly better in terms of reproductive ability of the bee mothers and the growth rate of the brood. Before the main honey collection during the period of queen bees egg production, the third group with a significant difference dominated the first and second groups by an average of 14,1 % in May and 12,6 % - June. From June to August, egg production decreased by an average of 26.3% in the first and second group and 35,6 % in the third. During sunflower honey harvesting the honey productivity of bee families was higher in the third group, which significantly prevailed control group by 21,2 %. As a result of studies on the development and productivity of bee families, the technology of their maintenance and use on honey fields of sunflower under the environmental and climatic conditions of Zhytomyr Polissya has been improved. Compliance with the recommendations of the improved technology of keeping and using bee colonies on honey fields in the conditions of northern Polissya allows successful organizing beekeeping up to the main collecting, obtaining monofloral commodity products, preparing families for the new season and facilitation successful wintering of bees

bee family, retention, honey, sunflower