Abstract
This study shows how the addition of a saline solution to drone semen and the pre- and post-insemination care of honey bee queens affect both the number of sperm in the spermatheca and the condition of the oviducts. Queens were instrumentally inseminated and stored under various conditions. These conditions included being held in mailing cages with 15 or 25 workers in which all were kept at 20 °C or 34 °C, and being held in nursery colonies in which the queens were caged without worker bees. Some of the queens in each group were inseminated with semen only, others were inseminated with semen and saline. The number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca did not significantly differ between the queens inseminated with semen only and those inseminated with semen and the saline solution. The queens kept in mailing cages with workers had significantly more spermatozoa than those queens banked in cages without worker bees. The addition of a saline solution to semen, and the conditions the queens were stored in, did not significantly affect the condition of the oviducts.
Highlights
The number of honey bee queens instrumentally inseminated annually in Poland is 50,000 to 90,000
We investigated factors based on common practices used in different countries
Queens held in an incubator at 34 °C in mailing cages with 15 worker bees (15W-34 °C); 4
Summary
The number of honey bee queens instrumentally inseminated annually in Poland is 50,000 to 90,000. In the rest of the world, only an estimated 6000 to 10,000 queens are inseminated instrumentally. Many factors influence the number of spermatozoa entered in the spermatheca. These factors include the age of the queen, semen dosage, and the preand post-insemination care of queens (Woyke 1962, 1979; Mackensen 1964; Woyke and Jasiński 1976, 1979, 1980, 1982; Wilde 1994; Cobey 2007; Bieńkowska et al 2008, 2011; Cobey et al 2013; Gąbka et al 2016).
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