THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF BEEHIVES AND THE ORIGIN OF QUEENS ON THE QUALITY OF HONEY IN CROATIA

Our research was aimed at determining the extent to which different types of beehives and the origin of queen-bees influence the quality of honey. We used three different types of hives that are most frequently used in beekeeping in Croatia. In each group there were 20 hives with queens of different origin, 10 natural queens, and 10 queens selected for honey production. All hives used were in the same location. Based on the investigation of the influence of different types of hives (AŽ, DB and LR) and queens (natural and selected) we could conclude the following. Hive types had a statistically significant (P<0.05) influence on the degree of acidity in honey (mmol acid/kg). The queen origin had a statistically significant (P<0.05) influence on the activity of diastase. The interaction of investigated factors (hive types and queen origin) had an influence on the activity of diastase (P<0.001), the water insoluble content (P<0.01) and the thermal conductivity of honey (P<0.05). This paper also indicates that the anthropogenic (or human) factor, i.e. the creation of selected queen bees, can cause biological reactions, i.e. changes in the metabolism of individuals, different from reactions of individuals raised in nature.
Naša istraživanja imala su za cilj utvrditi u kojoj mjeri različiti tipovi košnica i podrijetlo matica utječu na kakvoću meda. U istraživanjima koristili smo tri različita tipa košnica koja se najčešće koriste u Hrvatskoj. U svakoj skupini određenog tipa bilo je dvadeset košnica različitog podrijetla matica, 10 prirodnih i 10 selekcioniranih za proizvodnju meda. Istraživanja o utjecaju različitih tipova košnica (AŽ, DB, LR) i podrijetla matica (prirodne i selekcionirane) dala su sljedeće rezultate. Tipovi košnica imali su statistički značajan (P<0,05) utjecaj na stupanj kiselosti meda (mmol acid/kg). Podrijetlo matica imalo je statistički značajan (P<0,05) utjecaj na aktivnost dijastaze. Interakcija istraživanih čimbenika (tipova košnica i podrijetla matica) imali su utjecaj na aktivnost dijastaze (P<0,001), sadržaj tvari netopljivih u vodi (P<0,01) i toplinsku provodljivost meda (P<0,05). I ovaj rad je ukazao da antropogeni (ljudski) čimbenik (stvaranje selekcioniranih matica) može izazvati biološke reakcije (promjene u metabolizmu jedinki) različite od reakcija jedinki uzgojenih u prirodi.