Comb age significantly influences the emergency queen rearing, morphometric and reproductive characteristics of the queens

Abstract

A study on the impact of comb age on the number of emergency queen cells and ripped queen cells was conducted. Also, we compared morphometric and reproductive characteristics of queens reared in combs aged 1, 2, 3, and 4 years. The highest number of emergency queen cells was constructed in combs aged 1 year on the 2nd day after dequeening. No more queen cells were constructed after the 5th day of dequeening. The highest numbers of successful queen cells and emerged queens were obtained from the new combs. The amount of royal jelly (RJ)/queen cell, the weight of the newly emerged queen, and the queen cell size significantly decreased with increasing the age of the comb. Compared with the newly emerged queens from combs aged 1 year, the queens from combs aged 3 and 4 years exhibited significantly lower values for antenna length, mandibular gland area, forewing area, number of hamuli, area of the 3rd and 4th abdominal tergites, abdomen length, number of ovarioles/ovary, ovariole length and diameter, and spermathecal size. Significant positive correlations between the queen cell size and RJ yield/queen cell, queen body weight, and all queen characteristics except for the hindwing area were found. It can be concluded that the number of reared queens and their morphometrics and reproductive characteristics were significantly dependent on the age of the combs. The queen’s body size can be used as an indicator of the queen’s quality.