THREE BEHAVIORS OF Apis cerana (F.) IN RESPONSE TO SUPPLEMENTARY FEED OF PULP AND PASTE OF TONGKA LANGIT BANANA

Abstract

The use of supplementary feed plays a critical role in controlling honey bee (Apis cerana, F) colonies to prevent communal migration causes by feed availability, especially in changeable weather conditions. The provision of supplementary feed based on tongka langit banana, Musa troglodytarum (L.) pulp fruit containing high β-carotene content that expecting to influence behaviors of the bees. This aims to describes and analyzes the three bees’s behavior, i.e.: adaptation, feeding, and resting in response to the provision of supplementary feed based on tongka langit banana. The research was conducted for 10 days with the provision of treatment feeds: K₊ (sugar syrup) as a positive control, P₁ (treatment with fresh pulp fruit), and P₂ (treatment with banana paste), and data collection was carried out the number of individuals related to those behaviours within a total of 5 periods. The data on the number of individuals in three behavioral parameters were analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance and followed by Duncan's Multiple Range Test. The result from treatments showed that the highest number of individuals in adaptation and feeding behavior were P₂ and K₊, respectively. Meanwhile, in the P₁ treatment, individual involvement was the lowest, meaning that the adaptation behavior to fresh fruit flesh was lower compared to sugar syrup feed, where this treatment used tongka langit banana flesh as a natural product feed without any mixture. Then, the comparison mean test shows that the P₂ treatment was closely equal with K₊ treatment, indicating that P₂ treatment has good potential as supplementary feed for Apis cerana (F.) honey bees, containing high β-carotene, and might be reflected into honey bees indirectly contain β-carotene even in small amounts.