Ecological Potentials of Beekeeping in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the ecological potentials of beekeeping in Adamawa State. Following the delineation of the state into three zones, the inventory of plant resources at both woody and herbaceous layer was made to prepare the list of plant resources utilized by bees, determine density of both tree and shrub species and estimate the cover of herbaceous plant species in the study area. These were done using the plot  and total count method for trees and shrubs, while herbaceous plant cover was estimated in quadrats by the ocular estimate method. Secondary data on precipitation, temperature, relative humidity were  collected from the nearest meteorological stations to the study sites. Results obtained showed that 28 species of trees, 5 species of shrubs and 12 species of  herbaceous plants were listed as plants utilized by bees in the study area. Among the  trees inventoried, 60%, 72% and 75% were utilized by bees in zones 1, 2 and 3 respectively, while 50%, 81.75% and 86.67% of  shrubs were also utilized by bees in zones 1, 2 and 3 respectively. 68%, 65% and 20% of herbaceous plants cover were utilized by bees in zones 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Precipitation (-0.183^ns) and  temperature (0.776^ns) had no significant effect on the yield of honey. The effect of relative  humidity on yield of honey was significant (0.308, P≤0.05), while that of tree density was highly  significant (1.297, P≤0.01).