Effects of Supplemental Feeding of Queen Rearing Colonies and Larval Age on the Acceptance of Grafted Larvae and Queen Traits

Abstract

The research was carried out at the apiary of the Dept. of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University. Twelve rearing colonies were assigned to 4 feeding groups of syrup, syrup with pollen and syrup with vitamin mixture and control group on natural sources. Another colony was prepared as breeder to take grafting material. The effects of supplemental feeding and the age of larva on the acceptance rate and queen qualities were measured. In addition, the reproductive performances of light and heavy weight resultant queens were observed. It was found that supplemental feeding of rearing colonies improves the acceptance rate of grafted larvae (P0.05). Larval age did not affect the acceptance rate. On the other hand, 2-day-old larvae were more readily accepted (82.3 plus-minus 2.16%) than 1-day-old larvae (73.4 plus-minus 4.56%). The live weights of queens after emergence were not influenced of feeding, whereas the queens reared from 1-day-old larvae (166.6 plus-minus 1.74 mg) were significantly (P0.01) heavier than those from 2-day-old larvae (160.8 plus-minus 1.22 mg). The length and volume of queen cells were measured after emergence and found affected by feeding (P0.01 and P0.05) and larval age (P0.05 and P0.01), respectively. The reproductive performances of light and heavy weight queens were observed in colonies throughout the production season. The heavy weight queens produced more brood area (945 plus-minus 114.0 cm2) than the light weight queens (709 plus-minus 93.1 CM2). The difference between the averages of queen weight groups was significant (P0.05). The heavy weight queens also built up larger colonies. The periodic changes both in brood areas and the numbers of combs covered with bees were significant (P0.01).