No abstract

No abstract

Collection of honey bee drone semen is time consuming. For this reason, in mass production honey bee queens are usually inseminated with small doses of semen. Naturally mated queens store in their spermatheca 4 to 7 million sperm cells (5). Therefore, well inseminated instrumentally queens should have also at least 4 million spermatozoa. However Wilde (11) did not observe any differences in the strength of colonies during the entire season and honey production on the brood area and productivity in the colonies with instrumentally inseminated queens with a dose of 8, 4 and only 2 µl of semen. The higher the dose of semen, the higher the number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca but the dose of 8 µl is sufficient (14, 15). However, Bieńkowska et al.(1) received significantly more spermatozoa in queens inseminated with 3, 4 and 6 µl of semen than with 8 µl. Double insemination is more effective. Queens inseminated once have less sperms than those inseminated twice with the same divided dose of semen (1,9,14,15). Gąbka (6) stated that queens inseminated once with 10 µl of semen have similar number of sperms in their spermatheca as those inseminated with 2 × 2 µl but significantly less than those inseminated with 2 × 4 µl of semen. Two inseminations with each dose of 6 µl give even better results than one insemination with 20 µl (15). The access of attendant bees significantly affects the number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca (12,13,16,18). It is best if queens are kept with at least 350 workers after insemination (16,17). The access of workers also affects the clearing of excess semen from oviducts (16). According to Gontarz et al. (8) queens should be keep with attendant bees even before insemination because the period prior to insemination affects condition of their oviducts after insemination. However Wilde (10) did not observe any differences on the brood area and productivity in the colonies with instrumentally inseminated queens kept before and after insemination in different conditions.The aim of this study was to investigate the number of spermatozoa entering the spermatheca of queens Gąbka J., Muszyńska R., Zajdel B.Number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca of honey bee queens inseminated with small doses of semen and kept in an incubator in cages with different numbers of workers SummaryIn mass production, instrumentally inseminated honey bee queens are usually kept in mailing cages with a low number of workers and inseminated with small doses of semen. Inseminated queens should have more than 4 mln sperms in their spermatheca. The aim of this study was to investigate the number of spermatozoa entering the spermatheca of queens inseminated with different small doses of semen. Ninety queens were divided into six groups and inseminated as follows: 1 µl, 2 µl or 3 µl of semen at the age of 7 days and 2 × 1 µl, 2 × 2 µl or 2 × 3 µl at the age of 7 and 9 days. Queens were kept in the mailing cages with 15 or 25 attendant bees before and after instrumental insemination. No significant differences were found i...

Cacoxenus indagator is one of cleptoparasites most frequently found in the nests of Osmia bicornis L. The goal of this experiment was to examine the influence of the presence of 2-3 C. indagator larvae in the brood chamber on the cocoon mass, on the mass and size of bee imagines, and on their emergence rate. During the analysis of red mason bee nest material, 200 cocoons were taken from brood chambers, each of them also containing 2-3 larvae of C. indagator (CC). The control group consisted of 200 randomly chosen cocoons from brood chambers with no parasites inside (CFFC). The cocoons and the emerged bees were weighed, and then the size of the bees was determined by the microscope image analysis software Axio Vision Rel. 4.0 coupled with a Stereo Lumar V12 stereoscopic microscope (Carl Zeiss, Germany). This involved measuring the sum of the widths of tergites 3 and 4, the distance between the wings and the forewing length and width. It was found that the presence of 2-3 C. indagator larvae in the brood chamber had no impact on the mortality of bees in cocoons. The research demonstrates that CC cocoons do not have to be removed when collecting cocoons from artificial nests in managed O. bicornis populations, as bees emerging from such cocoons are fully developed.

a b s t r a c t in bee colonies without open brood, e.g., after swarming, there is no need for royal jelly, and nurse bees thus do not produce it. according to many beekeepers, adding combs with open brood restarts the production of royal jelly by nurse bees, and the virgin queens then are better fed and start earlier oviposition. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the presence of open brood and the strength of the colonies affect the onset of oviposition by queen bees. open brood in colonies with virgins before and during mating flights did not accelerate the initiation of oviposition by the queens. in addition, no differences were identified in starting oviposition by queens in strong colonies of more than 30,000 worker bees, or in weak colonies with up to 1,000 workers. overall, the results showed that neither open brood in the nests, nor the strength of the colonies affects the onset of oviposition by queen bees.