Number of Worker Bees Necessary to Attend Instrumentally Inseminated Queens Kept in an Incubator

Abstract

SUMMARYHoneybee queens were instrumentally inseminated with 8 mm' of semen. Next they were kept without workers in nursery cages in a colony, or with 0 up to 350 attendant worker bees in small boxes placed in an incubator at 34 °C. The queens were killed and dissected two days after insemination. Queens kept in nursery cages had on the average 2.5 million spermatoza in their spermatheca. An increasing number of attendant workers resulted in a higher number of spermatozoa penetrating queens spermatheca. The highest number of 4.5 million of spermatozoa was found in the spermatheca of queens kept with 250 workers after instrumental insemination. These queens had 1.8 times more spermatozoa in the spermatheca than those kept without workers. It is recommended to keep queens for two days in an incubator after instrumental insemination, with 250 attendant workers.

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

“…Woyke (13) did not state any differences in the number of sperms in spermatheca of queens kept in cages without workers or with only 10 workers. There was also no difference between 20 and 40 attendant bees, but increasing the number of workers to 80 resulted in a significant increase of the number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca (17,18).…”

“…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).…”

Impact of Confinement and Population Size on the Instrumentally Inseminated Queen’s Performance of Apis cerana Species in South Korea

“…Active, free movement of the queen and attendance by workers after insemination helps clear the semen in oviducts and increases the efficiency of sperm cell migration into the spermatheca (Woyke, 1979). Moreover, previous findings noted that the caged queens tended to retain semen in their lateral oviducts which can be harmful and sometimes fatal (Vesely, 1970;Woyke and Jasinski, 1979;Chuda-Mickiewicz et al, 2003). Thus, the caged queen of A.…”

“…The size of the bee population where instrumentally inseminated queen was kept before and after insemination not only affected the success rate of insemination, it also affected onset of oviposition and number of sperm cells stored in the spermatheca of queen (Woyke and Jasinski, 1979;Gerula, 2007;Gerula et al, 2016). Therefore, an increase in the population of attendant worker bees increased the cluster temperature contributing to faster initiation of egg laying, and efficiency of sperm migration to store in spermatheca (Woyke and Jasiński, 1990).…”

“…In beekeeping practices, instrumentally inseminated A. mellifera queens were kept in various method before and after insemination, such as, confining queen in queen cage in incubator or in queenless colony, keeping queen in nuclei or regular ("normal") colony (Woyke and Jasinski, 1979;Harbo, 1986;Laidlaw, 1987;Chuda-Mickiewicz et al, 2003). The best method to maintain the queens was to keep them before and after insemination as single individuals in regular colonies from which they were removed only for the insemination to be returned to the colony immediately once the treatment was completed (Woyke and Jasiñski, 1982;Laidlaw, 1987;Prabucki et al, 1987).…”