The Effect of Genetic Origin of the Grafted Larvae and Rearing Colonies on the Acceptance Rate, Weight and Cell Length of Apis Mellifera Queens.

Abstract

The present work was carried out at Fayoum governorate to study the effect of the genetic origin of breeding colonies (A.m. carnica, A.m. ligustica and A.m.bukfast) and rearing colonies (A. m. carnica, and A. m. ligustica), queen cell position within the grafted frame (Edge, Near Edge and Center), cell bar level (Upper and Middle) and batches on the acceptance rate of the grafted larvae, queen weights and queen cell length during April, May, July and August. The results indicated that the acceptance rate of the grafted larvae was significantly higher for ligustica as breeding (62.90%) or rearing (60.93%) colonies, for related (71.04%) than unrelated larvae (51.86%), for Center than Edge or Near edge positions, for the Middle bar than the Upper bar, for batch 1 than batch 2, and for July or August than April or May. The average weight of queens was significantly heavier for carnica (174.37 mg) than ligustica (167.58 mg) (as rearing colonies), for the Middle bar than the Upper bar, during April than May, July and August. The average length of queen cells was insignificantly longer for carnica (1.94 cm) than ligustica (1.90 cm) (as rearing colonies), and was significantly longer for April than May, July and August. Key words:-Queen rearing, acceptance rate, queen weight, queen cell length, bar, batch. A.m. carnica, A.m.ligustica, A.m.bukfast. INTRODUCTIONQueen bees are the most important individuals within honey bee colonies for both genetic and social reasons. Thus understanding the reproductive potential of honey bee queens will provide valuable insights for improving queen quality and overall colony fitness (Winston, 1987).The quality of honeybee queen depends on her genotype and the environment where she was reared (Tarpy et al., 2000). However, the first step is to find the larvae suitable for queen rearing by the nurse bees. Nepotism is hypnotized to be the underlying reason for the selection of individual larvae to be reared as queens (Tarpy et al., 2004). However, the data published so far on this subject are contradictory (Breed et al., 1984;Erickson, 1984 and Visscher, 1986 a).Due to the relation of queen weight with the number of ovarioles, many researchers considered the weight of newly emerged queens as reliable MATERIALS AND METHODSThe present work was carried out in a private apiary situated at Kafr Abbod village, Abshway district, Fayoum governorate, during the period from April to August, 2015. For this purpose three honey bee hybrids (A.m.carnica, A.m.ligustica and A.m.bukfast) were used during this study. Pure virgin queens were obtained, open mated at the apiary, and their daughter queens were used as 1 st hybrids.Nine honey bee colonies were used for this study. Three colonies (one from each hybrid) were used as breeder colonies (BC), and six colonies (3 from A. m. carnica, and 3 from A.m. ligustica) were used as rearing colonies (RC) during April & May (spring) and July & August (summer) of 2015. Each rearing (queenless) colony received 240 larvae, 60 larvae / month throughout two successi...