Performance of Artificially and Naturally Inseminated Honey Bee Queens (Apis cerana indica)

Abstract

Comparative performance of honey bee, A. c. indica colonies, developed from artificially and naturally inseminated queens was recorded in the apiary and under laboratory condition of Department of Entomology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat from September’2015 to March’2018.The selection studies were carried out from April, 2015 to January, 2016. Ten viable colonies were selected from 20 colonies of A. c. indica for the study. During the study between Artificially Inseminated(AI) and Naturally Inseminated(NI) colonies of A. c. indica from April’2017 to March’2018, significant difference were found in terms of brood area, pollen area and nectar area in all the months between AI and NI colonies. Pollination efficiency revealed significant difference between AI and NI colonies in April, May, June, October, December, February and March. Honey yield revealed significant difference between AI and NI colonies in May, July, December, January, February and March. And the comparative performance between AI and NI colonies of A. c. indica revealed that performance of AI queens was significantly better than the NI queens.