DOMINANT POLLEN IN HONEY SAMPLES FROM FOUR BEEHIVES IN ABEOKUTA, SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

In the quest to examine the preferentially foraged pollen by honey bees in Abeokuta, Nigeria, a palynological study was conducted on honey samples from four bee farms; Owudekudu, Olorunda, Agbede and Odeda, all situated within Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Honey samples were collected and subjected to acetolysis, followed by slide preparation and microscopy of the treated samples. Twelve pollen types were recovered from the four honey samples and some of these pollen are common to the four honeys. A classification method for expressing pollen frequency class was adopted: Very frequent (Over 45%), Frequent (16-45%), Rare (3-15%) and Sporadic (Less than 3%). The most abundantly recovered pollen grains in the four locations were those of Berlinia grandiflora, Albizia sp., Bombax buonopozense, Asteraceae and Fabaceae. Pollen of Elaeis guineensis, Rutaceae, Amaranthaceae, Combretaceae/Melastomaceae, Senna sp., Poaceae and Convolvulaceae were also recovered. The results of this study indicate that these plants were preferentially foraged by honey bees in the sample locations. This might have been influenced by more suitable nutritional contents of these pollen grains produced by their parent plants, although yet to be investigated. Hence, there is need for an appropriate conservation strategy of these plants from destructive human activities such as indiscriminate felling of trees and forest clearing for agricultural and urban developmental projects. The results from this work have established these plants as preferential to bee forage in Nigeria