Comparison of honey bee queens overwintered individually and in groups

Authors

  • Stephen R. Mitchell Department of Biological Sciences Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C.
  • Daniella Bates B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food Abbotsford, B.C.
  • Mark L. Winston Department of Biological Sciences Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C.
  • Douglas M. McCutcheon B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food Abbotsford, B.C.

Keywords:

honey bee, <i>Apis</i>

Abstract

Productivity of honey bee queens, as measured by area of sealed worker brood and net weight of colonies, was generally higher with queens overwintered in 2-frame nuclei, than with queens overwintered in a group. Poor acceptance and supercedure of group overwintered queens suggest that this method of storage is not yet acceptable for commercial use. Survival of the nucleus queens was low in outdoor 2-frame units during the winter, but improved with an indoor system. Overwintering queens indoors in 2-frame nuclei and outdoors in 3-5 frame nuclei with supplemental feeding of carbohydrate in late winter should provide a source of queens which could partially fulfill market demands in spring.

References

Canadian Honey Council. 1982. Minutes and Proceedings.

Corner, J. 1977. Provincial Apiarist’s Report.

Harp, E.R. 1969. A method of holding large numbers of honey-bee queens in laying condition. Am. Bee J. 109:340-341.

Levinsohn, M. and Y. Lensky. 1981. Long-term storage of queen honeybees in reservoir colonies. J. Apic. Res. 20:226-233.

McCutcheon, D.M. 1984. Final report: B.C. honeybee stock improvement project.

Pankiw, P. and J. Corner. 1970. Production of package bees in southern British Columbia, Canada. J. Apic. Res. 9:29-32.

Szabo, T.I. 1977. Overwintering of honeybee queens. 2. Maintenance of caged queens in queenless colonies. J. Apic. Res. 16:41-46.

Szabo, T.I. 1982. Phenotypic correlations between colony traits in the honey bee. Am. Bee J. 122:711-716.

Winston, M.L. 1983. Trends in Canadian beekeeping. Am. Bee J. 123:837-840.

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Published

2019-09-17

Issue

Vol. 82 (1985): Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia

Section

Articles

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