honey bee nutrition with fermented protein sources

abstract: mostly honey bee consumes pollen as fermented and fermentation improves foods biological value in some cases.  in this study we evaluate the nutritional effects of fermented diets on honey bee body protein and brood rearing in colonies. this experiment conducted on honey bee colonies with different diets in a completely randomized design with 6 treatments and 7 replicates for 50 days. honey bee colonies equipped with the same age queens and the same pollen and honey storage. treatments were: 1-fermented corn gluten 2- corn gluten 3-fermented soybean 4- soybean 5 - pollen and 6 - sugar syrup, that sugar syrup and pollen were considered as control. comparison of the means in brood rearing showed significantly difference between treatments (p<0.05). fermented gluten and soybean had the highest and lowest brood rearing, respectively. in contrast, no significant differences were observed between treatments in worker bee body protein (p>0.05). according to the results the fermentation of foodstuffs increased brood rearing and thus supplementary feeding with fermented materials is better for honey bee colonies.