Erten, Ömer; Öztürk, Yahya

The aim of this article is to examine the current problems of beekeepers in Turkey and the effects of these problems on colony losses and to determine the thoughts and solution suggestions of beekeepers against this situation. The research was conducted with 412 beekeepers in Turkey between February and May 2024. In order to determine the beekeepers to be surveyed, a preliminary study was conducted with 50 beekeepers from different provinces. It was determined that 95.6% of the participants were male, 50.7% were in the 31-50 age range, the majority (87.6%) were married and 49.3% were university graduates (P<0.01). While 27.7% of the beekeepers purchased queen bees for their colonies commercially, 57.0% of them produced them themselves (P<0.01). High input costs were stated as the most important problem of Turkish beekeeping by 30.8%. The most common disease and pest encountered by beekeepers was Varroa destructor with 79.4% (P<0.01). As a result, this study reveals beekeepers’ perspectives on current problems and colony losses and evaluates how a sustainable production can be made by addressing the main problems in the beekeeping sector. The study emphasises the necessity of policies and practices at local and national level for the sustainability of the beekeeping sector and the reduction of colony losses.

Şeker, İbrahim; Erten, Ömer; Köseman, Abdurrahman

This research was carried out to determine the identification of the awareness, attitude and sensitiveness of dog owners in Türkiye, and levels of understanding the body language of dogs. The research material consisted of data obtained from face-to-face surveys with randomly selected 172 dog owners. In the study, the differences between the education level categories of dog owners were found to be statistically significant (P<0.01), but not for marital status, child ownership, age and household income (P>0.05). In addition, the rate of those who did not have children was found to be higher among those who adopted dogs for the reasons of animal love/compassion (58.6%) and feeling of loneliness (75.0%). According to the findings, dog owners spend a maximum of 1-2 hours with their dogs during the day. Men have more difficulty in caring for their dogs than women due to lack of time, financial constraints and other reasons. In this study, dog owners were able to correctly identify 10 of the 20 images of dog body language at a medium and high level (50.0-95.3%), and 10 of them at a low and very low level (47.7-4.1%). As a result; It is important for those who want to have a dog to make an attempt by questioning whether they have the necessary time, energy and financial means. In addition, it is thought that it is important to learn the body language of dogs, that there is a need for institutional structures that will help people who own or want to acquire dogs in this regard and in the field of general breeding, and teach them the requirements of their responsibilities.