Performance evaluation of naturally mated and instrumentally inseminated honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) queens in field colonies
2003
Abdulaziz, S. | Al-Qarni, M. (King Saud Univ., Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). Dept. of Plant Protection) | Smith, B.H. | Cobey, S.W.
Apis mellifera queens were reared to evaluate the performance of Naturally Mated (NM) and instrumentally inseminated (II) queens, using Doolittle grafting method. A group of twelve queen cells was introduced to five frames nucleus colonies and virgins allowed to mate naturally. A second group of 14 queen cells was confined to cages and instrumentally inseminated once with 8 mul of semen and placed back to their assigned nucleus colonies. At oviposition, nucleus colonies for both groups were transferred into a standard Langstroth hive filled with empty combs and all colonies were allowed to build up naturally into full-size colonies. A perusal of the data presented a slightly higher survival rate in NM queens but binary logistic regression test revealed no significant differences between the survival rates of both NM and II queens that ended up with 5 NM (41 %) and 3 11 (21.4 %) queens after 23- months. A detail probe of ANOVA also indicated no significant difference in brood production which were recorded 1274.4 and 1304.3 CM-2 2-months after colony establishment, 1585.2 and 1534.6 CM-2 during April 1997 and 1674.9 and 1541.5 CM-2 during spring 1998 for NM and II queens respectively. Likewise, honey production for NM remained statistically at par with that of II queens and was recorded 251.7 and 241.1 lbs. during fall season 1996 and 314.2 and 297.5 lbs. during fall 1997 for NM and II queens respectively.
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