Knowledge and implementation of good beekeeping practices by beekeepers in New Valley governorate, Egypt

Abstract

This research aimed to: (1) Determine the level of knowledge and implementation of the respondents' beekeepers of good beekeeping practices, (2) Determine the correlation between the level of knowledge of the respondents' beekeepers of good beekeeping practices and the studied independent variables, (3) Determine the correlation between the level of implementation of the respondents' beekeepers of good beekeeping practices and the studied independent variables. Data were collected using questionnaire form prepared for this purpose, from a Sample of 111 beekeepers. Frequencies, percentage, and Spearman rank order correlation coefficient were used for data presentation and analysis. The results showed that the level of knowledge of the respondents was high in four of the processes related to good practices in beekeeping, namely: visiting the hive, transferring the hives, joining the hives, and artificial fertilization with rates of 65.4%, 42.3%, 35.2%, 33.3% respectively. It also came to clear that the level of implementation of the respondents was high in one of the operations of good practices in beekeeping, which is visiting the hive by 36.0%, while their level of implementation was non-existent in four other operations, namely: industrial shunting, joining the cells, and feeding the colonies, and cell migration at rates of 49.5%, 39.6%, 35.1%, 33.3%, respectively. It came out that there is a positive significant correlation at 0.01 level between the knowledge level of the respondents about good practices of beekeeping and two variables: the use of information sources, and benefit from information sources, and a negative significant correlation at 0.05level between the respondents' knowledge level and average cell production. It came to light that there is a positive significant correlation between the level of respondents' implementation of good beekeeping practices, and two variables: use of information sources, benefit from information sources, and the number of years of experience, and a negative significant correlation at 0.05 level between the overall implementation level and average cell yield.