Floral utilization by honey bees: A case study of sustainable land management in Kakamega, Vihiga and Nandi Forests, Kenya

Plant floral resources make an important component in bee colony development and honeyproduction. The Kakamega-Vihiga-Nandi Forest Ecosystem has been shrinking in size andnumber of tree species, but there is limited information on bee floral resources and theirpreference in the region. The study investigated the temporal availability of honey bee foragein three micro-catchments in the three counties, and the diversity and relative importance ofhoney bee plants. A purposive sampling design was adopted to identify and randomly selectbee hives. Bees, honey and pollen cake were sampled from each of the selected hives. Diversityof bee foraged plants was determined using the Shannon-Weiner diversity index. A total of 81plant species were identified. Kakamega recorded the highest plant diversity foraged by honeybees, followed by Nandi, with Vihiga recording the lowest. Eucalyptus spp had the highestpollen contribution in all the three counties with 44% of all the pollen counts, followed byAsteraceae spp with 13% of the total pollen counts across the three counties. Croton, Syzygiumand Polyscias spp followed with 7% each, with the rest of the plant species contributing lessthan 5% each. The results indicated a strong significant (p<0.05) correlation between theabundance of Eucalyptus on-farm and the percentage of floral sources in Kakamega (r=0.86)and Vihiga (r=0.96). Nandi had a moderate significant correlation (r=0.5). This is anindication that the composition ratios of bee forage resources depends on the abundance offlowering plants. Eucalyptus was one of the most important species for hive floral resourcesand should be conserved.