Successful Indoor Mass Storage of Honeybee Queens ( Apis mellifera ) during Winter

Andrée Rousseau and Pierre Giovenazzo
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Andrée Rousseau: Centre de Recherche en Sciences Animales de Deschambault, 120-A Chemin du Roy, Deschambault, QC G0A 1S0, Canada
Pierre Giovenazzo: Département de Biologie, 3044A, Faculté des Sciences et de Génie, Pavillon Vachon, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: The production of young, mated honeybee queens ( Apis mellifera ) is essential to replace dead queens or to start new colonies after wintering. Mass storage of mated honeybee queens during winter and their use the following spring is an interesting strategy that could help fulfill this need. In this study, we investigated the survival, fertility, and fecundity of young, mated queens stored massively in queenless colonies from September to April (eight months). The queens were kept in environmentally controlled rooms at temperatures above and below cluster formation. The results show that indoor mass storage of mated queens can be achieved with success when queen banks are stored above cluster temperature. Significantly higher survival of queens was measured when wintering queen banks at 16 °C. Surviving queens wintered at different temperatures above or below cluster formation had similar fertility (sperm viability) and fecundity (egg laying and viable worker population). This study shows the potential of indoor overwintering of honeybee queen banks. The technique we describe could be applied on a commercial scale by beekeepers and queen breeders.

Keywords: Apis mellifera; queen storage; queen wintering; queen banks; queen fertility; queen fecundity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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