Dietary chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) supplementation improves colony development, nutritional status, antioxidant defences, and honey production in honey bee colonies

This study evaluated the effects of chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) fruit powder as a functional dietary supplement for honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies, focusing on colony development, antioxidant defences, nutritional status, behaviour, and honey yield under field conditions. A total of 48 colonies were randomly assigned to four feeding treatments (control, 2, 5, and 10 g L−1 chokeberry supplementation), with six colonies per treatment in each apiary (n = 6 per apiary; n = 12 per treatment). The experiment was conducted as a balanced field trial across two apiaries. Colonies were fed sucrose syrup supplemented with chokeberry powder for 21 days. Following the feeding period, colonies were transferred to two high-altitude summer apiaries where colony development, flight activity, defensive behaviour, antioxidant biomarkers, and end-of-season honey yield were evaluated. Results demonstrated that chokeberry supplementation significantly improved colony development, with significant dose effects on brood area and bee-covered frames (both p < 0.001). Flight activity also increased with supplementation dose (p < 0.001), whereas defensive behaviour was not affected. Total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) activity, and haemolymph total protein concentration all increased significantly with supplementation (all p < 0.001). End-of-season honey yield was significantly higher in supplemented colonies than in the control group (p < 0.001). Overall, these findings demonstrate that chokeberry fruit powder represents a promising functional dietary supplement capable of improving colony performance through the combined contribution of its nutritional composition and bioactive phytochemicals under practical field conditions.