Honey bees are social insects and have enormous importance as pollinators. In addition to their normal foraging on flowers, honey bees require essential nutritional elements as diet for their survival and reproduction. By providing different diets to the bees, the development of different life stages and production of honey can be increased. To determine the impact of food availability on the number of adult worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.), an experimental trial was conducted with sixteen honey bees’ boxes placed with four varying food levels and each food level (treatment) contained four replications. Honeybee colonies were placed in the fields and 20 cells from each frame were selected randomly to check the longevity of worker bees.  Of all four treatments, the yeast diet (–708 ±59.84) yielded significant results for the number of adult worker bees following the sugar solution (–408.239 ± 26.22), water (–393.921 ±31.11), and natural foraging (–333.097), showing the maximum average mean values. The results are displayed in the form of graphs & tables and recommendations for the beekeepers based on the research findings. The model of analysis of variance was also significant as 5% significance level such as F(3, 72) = 6.81; p< 0.05. The finding of the study suggests that beekeepers can use the yeast- protein containing diet and sugar solution for the growth and development of adult worker bees particularly in the time of dearth of natural flora in the fields. However, it is suggested that the beekeepers should avoid the longer use of supplemental diets to the colonies since it can pose negative effects on the colony.

Keywords: Honey bees, longevity, supplemental diet, pollen substitute