Honey yield of bee colonies with naturally and instrumentally inseminated queen bees during two honey production seasons

Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Ralitsa Balkanska

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to investigate the honey yield obtained from bee colonies with naturally and instrumentally inseminated queen bees during two honey production seasons 2021 and 2022. The experiment was conducted at three apiaries 1, 2 and 3, located in the Veliko Tarnovo region. Two queen bee lines from each apiary participated in the experiment – Line 1 (LM-20) and Line 2 (LM45). Two groups of bee colonies were formed from each line. Each group consisted of 6 bee colonies with instrumentally inseminated queen bees and 6 bee colonies with naturally inseminated queen bees. Queen bees from the group of instrumentally inseminated bee colonies were inseminated once with 10 µl of semen at the age of 8 days from their hatching. In the first year of the queen bees (2021), a higher honey yield was found in bee colonies with instrumentally inseminated queens in the both lines, in the three apiaries. In the second year of the queen bees (2022), the honey yield of bee colonies with naturally and instrumentally inseminated queen bees was similar in the three apiaries.

Keywords: honey bee (Apis mellifera mellifera L.); honey yield; naturally and instrumentally inseminated queen bees

Date published: 2023-04-28