PERFORMANCE OF Apis mellifera L. QUEENS REARED USING DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES
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Date
2017-12-18
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CSKHPKV, Palampur
Abstract
The present investigations were undertaken to assess the relevance and practical utilization of various methods of honey bee queen rearing during the year 2016-17 at CSK HPKV, Bee Research Station, Nagrota Bagwan, HP. The studies were also extended to work out an impact on performance of new colonies developed by Miller, Smith, Doolittle and Swarming methods. Queen cells were reared by using strong mother and cell builder colonies two each with fixed 24 numbers of either eggs or larvae exposure. The highest number of finished queen cells and neonate queens were recorded as 9.00 ± 1.22 and 6.00 ± 0.91 in Doolittle method and was followed by Miller method 8.00 ± 1.08 cells and 4.25 ± 0.85 queens, respectively. The mean body weight of a day old queen reared by Doolittle, Miller, Swarming and Smith methods were recorded as 201.75 ± 10.06, 191 ± 8.82, 186.75 ± 6.54 and 184.00 ± 7.73 mg, respectively. The minimum mean duration of 18.75 ± 0.48 days to start laying was recorded by queens of Doolittle method while swarming queens took maximum period of 22.5 ± 0.87 days. The diameter at top of queen cells raised by Doolittle method had highest mean values (14.26 ± 0.61 mm). The mean size of queen cells was calculated (depth × diameter at mid) and was found highest (25.86 ± 0.89 mm × 12.11 ± 0.23 mm) by Doolittle method followed by Miller method (25.00 ± 0.33 mm × 11.93 ± 0.44 mm). The least size of finished queen cells was found in swarming method (21.12 ± 0.24 mm × 10.23 ± 0.75 mm). The newly mated queens were assessed for their brood rearing and it was found that mean brood area in colonies headed by queens reared by Doolittle method aggressively started their egg laying and registered highest brood area (3024 ± 366.10 cm2) while swarm queens were slow starters with lowest brood area (1950 ± 230.7 cm2). The significantly better mean colony hoarding capabilities in terms of pollen collection, nectar collection, strength gain and honey yield were recorded from the queens reared by Doolittle method over other methods of queen rearing. The analysis of the data while working out the correlation among the various parameters revealed that there was a positive correlation (r = 0.997) at 5% level of significance between per cent number of eggs given i.e. accepted cells and number of finished queen cells/colony. Similar records were there for emergence of more number of neonate queens as it was dependent on the colony strength (0.995). However Doolittle queen rearing resulted in better quality queens and colony performance followed by Miller technique. It is worth recommending that to have quality queens Doolittle technique should be opted but due to enough expertise required; farmers can opt an easier and low cost Miller method in their apiaries.
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