This study was carried out to determine the effects of age and number of grafted larvae on acceptance rates, body weight, body length, head width and length, thorax width and length, and wing width and length of queen bees. One breeding and eleven starter hives were used for rearing queen bees. Totally, 495 one, two, and three-day-old larvae were grafted into starter hives comprising 30, 45, and 60 and 414 larvae were accepted; thus, generally, the acceptance rate was calculated as 83%. The best acceptance rate was calculated in three-day-old larvae group as 85.15%. There were found a statistically significant effect of the number of grafted larvae on body length and head width of queen. However, there were any effects on weight, head length, thorax width, thorax length, wing width, wing length, and acceptance rate of larvae. Age of grafted larvae did not have a statistically significant effect on head width, head length, wing width and acceptance rate of larvae. On the other hand, age of grafted larvae had a statistically significant effect on queen weight, body length, thorax width and length, and wing length of queen. If bee breeders wish to improve their stock, they should graft one-day-old larvae for rearing better queen bees.

Propolis is biologically highly active honey bee product. The popularity of propolis is increasingly growing because of its contribution to human health. Propolis composition is highly variable depending on its sources. Different honey bees subspecies can collect propolis having different anti-bacterial effect. Honey bees, collect propolis for a couple of different purposes such as narrowing the entrance of their own hives and airflow isolation. In this study, propolis collected from entrances (EC) and top of deep supper (FC) of six different hives, and the antioxidant properties of these propolis samples were compared. Average values of total phenolic content were 68.5 and 62.6 mg GAE/g propolis extract, IC50 value of DPPH were 0.14 and 0.16 mg/mL, and FRAP value were 43.5 and 38.4 mg TE/g propolis extract samples collected from EC and FC, respectively. Statistically significant differences have not been found in terms of antioxidant activity analysis between EC and FC collected propolis (P>0.05).

Honey bee queen quality is a critical factor of colony performance. Indications of such qualities can manifest themselves through morphological traits such as wet weight and thorax width. Improving such characteristics is driven in part by nutritional provision in queen-cell-builder hives. We investigated the potential to improve queen quality by adding coenzyme Q10 (endogenous antioxidant) and caffeine (central nervous system stimulator) to feeder syrup in queen-cell-builder colonies for 15 and 20 days prior to grafting, two sets of queens were reared. We recorded subsequent wet weight, body length, head width and length, thorax and wing width and length, and spermathecae diameter. The queen-cell acceptance rate was not affected by either treatment or graft period. Coenzyme Q10 increased wet weight, body and wing length in the first graft, and thorax width, wing length and spermathecae diameter in the second graft. The caffeine treatment increased head and thorax length in first graft and thorax width in the second. A mix of the two substances (coenzyme Q10 and caffeine) increased head width in the first graft and spermathecae diameter in the second graft. This study suggests that the application of coenzyme Q10 to cell-builder colonies at least 15 days prior to grafting can increase reared wet weight (the most significant quality indicator) and thorax width of queen bees.