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ORAL PRESENTATION / SÖZLÜ SUNUM

Dose-Dependent Preference and Acute Safety Assessment
of Thymbra spicata Infusion in Honeybees (Apis mellifera)

3,*
3
Muhammed Hasan ŞİRİN Muhammet Mükerrem KAYA Melike Sultan DEMİRAĞ
1,2
Murat BAYEZİT Hidayet TUTUN 3
3

1 Siirt University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pharmacology and

Toxicology, Siirt, TÜRKIYE
2 Ankara University, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacology and

Toxicology, TÜRKIYE
3 Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of

Pharmacology and Toxicology, Burdur, TÜRKIYE
4 Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Food

Hygiene and Technology, Burdur, TÜRKIYE

*Correspound Author: mmmkaya@mehmetakif.edu.tr

This study investigated the preference behavior of honeybees for sugar syrups
containing Thymbra spicata infusion. Sugar syrup (feeding solution) containing five different
infusion concentrations (0.125%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, and 2%) and a control of additive-free
sugar syrup (50% w/w) were added to honeybee cages. Consumption of both additive-free
sugar syrup and sugar syrup with additives was measured daily for three days. The average
consumption per bee for each feeding solution was calculated, and the results were analyzed
using repeated-measures ANOVA. The repeated-measures ANOVA determined that time had
a significant effect on feeding preference (P=0.001). This result indicates that the preference
behavior of honeybees changed over the observation period. Additionally, the time ×
concentration interaction was found to be significant (P=0.03), indicating that bees changed
their preferences for feeding solutions containing different infusion concentrations over time.
This result suggests that the effect of concentration is not constant but varies over time.
However, the main effect of concentration was not significant (P=0.200), indicating that,
when averaged over all days, there was no significant difference in overall consumption for
different concentrations. Post-Hoc test results (Tukey) showed that consumption on day 1
was significantly different from both days 2 (P<0.001) and 3 (P<0.002), while there was no
difference between days 2 and 3 (P>0.629). This suggests that honey bees exhibited a
distinct feeding behavior on the first day, with no change in preference behavior on
subsequent days, possibly reflecting an adaptation to the plant infusion. Results of the Post-
Hoc test (Tukey) for concentration showed that consumption of the 0.125% concentration on
day 1 was significantly less than that of the 0.25% concentration on day 2 (P<0.007). No

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