Abundance and foraging behaviour of Apis mellifera on different cultivars of cucumber under polyhouse

Apis mellifera colony was introduced in polyhouse for pollination of cucumber. A mellifera commenced its activity early in the morning at 0700 h and attained its peak activity and maximum abundance on cucumber during 0900-1000 h. The cessation of bee activity took place during 1700–1800 h. Maximum activity of bees (7.64 bees/2 plants/5 min) on Rani and minimum (4.67 bees/2 plants/5 min) on Pant Sankar Khira was observed during different hours of the day. Significant increase in visiting frequency of honeybees was observed at the time of full bloom of cucumber and again the abundance decreased significantly at the time of cessation of the flowering. A mellifera spent maximum time (20.18seconds/flower) during 0900-1000 h on Pusa Sanyog. On five hybrids (Pant Sankar Khira, Sheetal, Rani, Pusa Sanyog and Mohini) A mellifera spent average time 12.94, 16.23, 18.29, 15.74 and 13.84 seconds/flower respectively during peak of flowering period (23–29.04.2003). The foraging rate of A mellifera was highest (3.59 flowers/min) prior to cessation of flowering (30.04.2003–06.05.2003) and was significantly higher than all other foraging rates observed in different standard weeks except 3.54 flowers/min (7–13.05.2003) which was statistically at par with each other.