Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T08:37:29.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MASS STORAGE OF HONEY BEE (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE) QUEENS DURING THE WINTER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

M.H. Wyborn ,
M.L. Winston  and
P.H. Laflamme
M.H. Wyborn
Affiliation:
Westgro Sales Inc., Delta, British Columbia, Canada V4G 1E7
M.L. Winston
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
P.H. Laflamme
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mass storage of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens over the winter was investigated in colony banks, with each queen held in her own cage within a colony. The major treatments included: (I) a single queen wintered in a small nucleus colony (control); and colony banks with 24 or 48 queens, each held individually in (II) screen cages that prevented workers from entering the cage, but allowed access for queen tending, (III) queen-excluder cages (queen-excluder material has openings of about 55 mm that prevent the larger queen but not the smaller workers from passing through the material), or (IV) screen cages until January and subsequent transfer to mini-nuclei until late March. Queens held in excluder cages showed poor survival in all 3 years of testing, and this system was not viable for commercial use; survival for any 1 year, or any excluder treatment, was never greater than 25%. In contrast, a 2-year average of 60% queen survival was found for queens that were stored in individual screened wooden cages within queenless colony banks. We found no differences in survival of banked queens that were moved between colonies monthly and those that remained in the same colony for 6 months. The success of these systems required the (a) preparation of colony banks that contained large numbers of adult workers produced by maintaining colonies with two queens during the previous summer, (b) removal of laying queen(s) during the storage period, (c) feeding of colonies well, and (d) insulation of colonies in groups of four, to preserve heat and reduce worker clustering in the winter. Surviving queens from winter storage systems were virtually identical in quality and colony performance to control queens the subsequent season. The annual profit for a commercial beekeeper who does his/her own labour for storage and hires workers for queen production was calculated as $16,625 when 4800 queens are stored over the winter, and sold for $10 each in the spring. Thus, mass queen storage using our successful systems is both biologically and economically viable.

Résumé

On a étudié l’entreposage massif d’abeilles reines (Apis mellifera L.) durant la période hivernale en utilisant des colonies "entrepôts" où chacune des reines était encagée individuellement. Les traitements furent les suivants : une seule reine hivernant dans une petite colonie noyau a servi de témoin alors que des colonies contenant 24 ou 48 reines encagées individuellement, ont été utilisées dans les trois autres traitements. Pour le second traitement, des grilles à reine empêchaient les ouvrières d’entrer en contact avec les reines mais permettaient toutefois le soin de celles-ci. Pour le troisième traitement, les barreaux de la cage d’exclusion des reines étaient disposés à 55 mm l’un de l’autre et permettaient ainsi l’entrée des ouvrières mais retenaient les reines à l’intérieur. Pour le quatrième traitement, les grilles à reine ont été utilisées jusqu’en janvier moment ou les reines furent transférées dans des mini-colonies jusqu’à la fin de mars. Les cages d’exclusion se sont avérés peu rentable commercialement en raison de la mortalité très élevée des reines. Le taux de survie des reines n’a jamais dépassé 25% lors des 3 années de recherches. Par contre, au courant de 2 années de travaux avec le système des grilles à reine, on a obtenu en moyenne un taux de survie des reines de près de 60% dans les colonies entrepôts. On n’a pas trouvé de différence au niveau du taux de survie chez les reines qui ont été transférées de colonie en colonie à chaque mois et chez celles qui hivernèrent dans la même colonie durant 6 mois. La réussite de ce système nécéssite (a) la préparation de colonies entrepôts où un grand nombre d’ouvrières adultes peut s’obtenir en laissant deux reines par colonie durant l’été précédent, (b) le retrait des reines pondeuses durant la période d’entreposage, (c) une nutrition adéquate des colonies et (d) l’isolement hivernal des colonies en groupes de quatre pour conserver la chaleur et réduire la formation de grappes d’ouvrières. Durant l’été suivant la période d’entreposage, les reines qui ont survécu ont montré les mêmes qualités que les reines témoins. Le profit annuel d’un apiculteur qui entreprend luimême les travaux d’entreposage et qui engage des travailleurs pour la production des reines a été estimé à $16,625 si 4800 reines sont entreposées durant l’hiver puis vendues à $10 l’unité au printemps. Par conséquent, l’entreposage massif des reines suivant nos techniques est viable autant du point de vue biologique qu’économique.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 125 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 113 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alberta Agriculture. 1984. A polyethylene insulated wrap for overwintering honey bee colonies out-of-doors in Alberta. Agdex Publication 616–21: 4 pp. Edmonton, Alberta.Google Scholar
Avetisyan, G.A. 1961. The relation between interior and exterior characteristics of the queen and fertility and productivity of the bee colony. XVIII International Apiculture Congress in Bucharest Proceedings: 44–53.Google Scholar
[Quoted in Woyke, J.. 1971. Journal of Apiculture 10(1): 45–55.]Google Scholar
Avetisyan, G.A., Rakhmatov, K.K., and Ziedov, J.M.. 1967. Influence of rearing periods on the external and internal characteristics of queen bees. XXI International Beekeeping Congress Summary 21: 277–284.Google Scholar
Avetisyan, G.A., and Vasiliadi, G.K.. 1967. Results of experiments on wintering of queens outside the bee colony. [In Russian.] XXI International Beekeeping Congress Summary Paper 129: 29–35. [Apiculture Abstracts 741/67.]Google Scholar
Boch, R., and Jamieson, C.A.. 1960. Relation of body weight to fecundity in queen honeybees. The Canadian Entomologist 92: 700–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietz, A. 1985. Problems and prospects of maintaining a two-queen colony system in honey bees throughout the year. American Bee Journal 125: 451–453.Google Scholar
Dietz, A., Wilbanks, T.W., and Wilbanks, W.G.. 1983. Investigations on long term queen storage in a confined system. Apiacta 28(3): 67–70.Google Scholar
Eckert, J.E. 1934. Studies in the number of ovarioles in queen honeybees in relation to body size. Journal of Economic Entomology 27: 629–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckert, J.E. 1937. Relation of size to fecundity in queen honeybees. Journal of Economic Entomology 30(4): 646–648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El-Helaly, M.S., Rawash, I.A., El-Gayar, F.H., and Ibrahim, S.M.A.. 1980. A simple technique for dissecting ovaries and counting ovarioles of the honeybee queens. pp. 235–237.in Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Apiculture in Tropical Climates, New Delhi, 1980.Google Scholar
Farrar, C.L. 1953. Two-queen colony management. Bee World 34(10): 189–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harp, E.R. 1957. Storage of queen bees. American Bee Journal 107(7): 250–251.Google Scholar
Harp, E.R. 1969. A method of holding large numbers of honey bee queens in laying condition. American Bee Journal 109(9): 340–341.Google Scholar
Hoopingarner, R., and Farrar, C.L.. 1959. Genetic control of size in queen honey bees. Journal of Economic Entomology 52(4): 547–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinsohn, M., and Lensky, Y.. 1981. Long-term storage of queen honeybees in reservoir colonies. Journal of Apicultural Research 20(4): 226–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makarov, Y.I. 1969. Biologically and economically useful characters of Far Eastern bees and their selection. [In Russian.] Timiryazev Academy of Agriculture, Moscow. Dissertation, 18 pp.Google Scholar
[Quoted in Woyke, J.. 1971. Journal of Apiculture 10(1): 45–55.]Google Scholar
Mitchell, S.R., Bates, D., Winston, M.L., and McCutcheon, D.M.. 1985. Comparison of honey bee queens overwintered individually and in groups. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 82: 35–39.Google Scholar
Nelson, D.L., and Gary, N.E.. 1983. Honey productivity of honeybee colonies in relation to body weight, attractiveness and fecundity of the queen. Journal of Apicultural Research 22(4): 209–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, E.V., and Roberts, W.C.. 1967. Storage of queen honey bees, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae), in solitary confinement. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 60(5): 1114–1115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, H.K., Edwards, F.J., Taber, S. III, and Mills, J.P.. 1973. Storage of honey bee queens in the laboratory: An appraisal. American Bee Journal 113(10): 376–377.Google Scholar
Reid, M. 1975. Storage of queen honeybees. Bee World 56(1): 21–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SAS Institute Inc. 1985. Version 5.00. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC. 956 pp.Google Scholar
Szabo, T.I. 1975. Overwintering of honeybee queens. 1. Maintenance of honeybee queens in solitary confinement. Journal of Apiculture Research 14(2): 69–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szabo, T.I. 1977. Overwintering of honeybee queens. 2. Maintenance of caged queens in queenless colonies. Journal of Apicultural Research 16(1): 41–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szabo, T.I. 1982. Phenotypic correlations between colony traits in the honeybee. American Bee Journal 122: 711–716.Google Scholar
Walsh, R.S. 1967. An experiment with queen banks. New Zealand Beekeeper 29(4): 14–17.Google Scholar
Weaver, N. 1957. Effects of larval age on dimorphic differentiation of the female honey bee. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 50: 283–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wen-Cheng, H., and Chong-Yuan, Z.. 1985. The relationship between the weight of the queen honeybee at various stages and the number of ovarioles, eggs laid and sealed brood produced. Honeybee Science 6(3): 113–116. [Apiculture Abstract 1161/86.]Google Scholar
Winston, M.L. 1987. The Biology of the Honey Bee. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. 281 pp.Google Scholar
Winston, M.L. 1992. Killer Bees: The Africanized Honey Bee in the Americas. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. 162 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woyke, J. 1987. Can the number of ovarioles in the ovaries be estimated by external characters of living queens? Unpublished mimeograph. 7 pp.Google Scholar
Wyborn, M.H. 1991. Mass storage of honey bee queens during the winter. M.Sc. thesis, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. 121 pp.Google Scholar
Wyborn, M.H., Winston, M.L., and Laflamme, P.H.. 1993. Storing mated queens during the winter in managed honey bee colonies. American Bee Journal. In press.Google Scholar