A review of methods used in some European countries for assessing the quality of honey bee queens through their physical characters and the performance of their colonies

Abstract

The authors' names are listed in alphabetical order with the exception of the corresponding author. All authors' contributions are equal. SummaryThe term "quality" in relation to queens and drones refers to certain quantitative physical and / or behavioural characters. It is generally believed that a high quality queen should have the following physical characteristics: high live weight; high number of ovarioles; large size of spermatheca; high number of spermatozoa in spermatheca; and be free from diseases and pests. It is, however, also known that the performance of a honey bee colony is the result of its queen's function as well as of that of the drones that mated with her. These two approaches are often considered together and give a general picture of the queen production technique and selection. Here we describe the most common and well known anatomical, physiological, behavioural and performance characters related to the queens, as measured in different European countries: the live weight of the virgin queen (Bulgaria); the live weight of the laying queen (Bulgaria, Italy); the diameter and volume of spermatheca (Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia); the number of ovarioles (Greece, Italy, Slovenia); the weight of ovaries (Slovenia); the number of spermatozoa in spermatheca (Italy, Poland, Slovenia); the brood pattern (Bulgaria, Greece); the egg laying ability / fecundity (Bulgaria); the brood production (Croatia, Serbia); the colony population development (Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia); the honey production (Croatia, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia); the hygienic behaviour (Croatia, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia); the defence behaviour (Croatia); the calmness / sitting on the comb (Croatia, Denmark); and swarming (Croatia, Denmark). The data presented fit well with the findings of the same characters in the literature, and in general they support the argument for the term "quality characters". Especially for the weight of the queen, the number of ovarioles, the volume of the spermatheca and the number of spermatozoa, data per country proved its own accuracy by repetition through the years. We also report that when instrumentally inseminated queens are kept under mass production conditions (in 338 Hatjina et al.

Nosema spp. infections cause no energetic stress in tolerant honeybees

“…Not only did the Nosema spp. prevalence decline from 60-80 % to approximately 10 % in colonies of this tolerant strain (based on 60 workers/colony) as a result of this artificial selection (Hatjina et al, 2014), but moreover these tolerant honeybees appeared to survive N. ceranae infection better than Nosema sensitive honeybees, which could be explained by up-regulated expression levels of key immune genes (Huang et al, 2012). However, it is not known whether these selected tolerant honeybees suffer trade-offs due to resource allocation shifts.…”

“…by excluding infested queens from further breeding for two decades (Hatjina et al, 2014). Not only did the Nosema spp.…”

Characteristics of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera Carnica, Pollman 1879) Queens Reared in Slovenian Commercial Breeding Stations

“…al, 2013). In A. m. carnica, the number of ovarioles range between 145-160 (Hatjina et al, 2014), the level of a quality queen. In our survey, the average number of ovarioles in queens exceeded the recommended number for a quality queen, but decreased continuously from 2006 to 2010, starting with the highest number of 161 in 2006, to the lowest number of ovarioles of 135 in 2010.…”

“…In total, 888 queens were evaluated every two years from apiaries in all the five regions: 324 were sampled from 27 queen rearing apiaries in 2006, another 288 queens were sampled from 24 apiaries in 2008, and in 2010, 276 additional queens were sampled from 23 apiaries. Procedures for evaluating queens in 2006 and 2008 followed those described by Hatjina et al (2014). Twelve queens from each apiary were sampled during the same time period; between June 16 and June 20 of each sampling year, and from the same selected queen mother colony.…”

Survey of the Health Status of Some Honey Bee Queens in Italy

“…From a general point of view, a "high quality" queen should be heavier, disease-free, have a large sized spermatheca, have a high number of spermatozoa in it, and have a high number of ovarioles. The queens should also have high egg laying ability/fecundity and eventually should have a high brood and population production, show very good hygienic behaviour, should increase honey yield, should show a low degree of defensive behaviour, be calm on the comb, and have a low swarming tendency (Hatjina et al, 2014). All these desired traits have a genetic basis and queens can be selected for them, but it is fundamental to consider the environmental conditions too.…”