Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity
The mass rearing of high-quality queen bees is an essential beekeeping practice for producing new queens to maintain colony productivity. A strain of high royal-jelly-producing bees (RJBs; <i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) in China exhibits high potential for the rapid mass rearing of que...
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MDPI AG
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Agriculture |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/2/264 |
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| author | Buajiram Ahmat Ting Yang Chuan Ma Cheng Zong |
| author_facet | Buajiram Ahmat Ting Yang Chuan Ma Cheng Zong |
| author_sort | Buajiram Ahmat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The mass rearing of high-quality queen bees is an essential beekeeping practice for producing new queens to maintain colony productivity. A strain of high royal-jelly-producing bees (RJBs; <i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) in China exhibits high potential for the rapid mass rearing of queens. To explore the potential changes in the quality of mass-reared queens, a set of morphometric traits and the sealed brood area were compared between the queens reared from 64 and 320 queen cells in RJB colonies. The increase in the queen cell number was found to induce a slightly but significantly reduced body weight and smaller wing length and thorax width in the reared queens at emergence. However, the ovariole number and sealed brood area, an indicator of the queen fecundity, were not observed to be significantly influenced. With respect to body weight and ovariole number, all the reared queens satisfied the current criteria for high-quality queens. Our findings provide evidence for the efficient mass production of high-quality queens using RJB colonies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:47:08Z |
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| issn | 2077-0472 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:47:08Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
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| series | Agriculture |
| spelling | doaj.art-fb47ac230ca6439aba428e6c5706876a2024-02-23T15:03:45ZengMDPI AGAgriculture2077-04722024-02-0114226410.3390/agriculture14020264Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable FecundityBuajiram Ahmat0Ting Yang1Chuan Ma2Cheng Zong3College of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, ChinaCollege of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, ChinaThe mass rearing of high-quality queen bees is an essential beekeeping practice for producing new queens to maintain colony productivity. A strain of high royal-jelly-producing bees (RJBs; <i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) in China exhibits high potential for the rapid mass rearing of queens. To explore the potential changes in the quality of mass-reared queens, a set of morphometric traits and the sealed brood area were compared between the queens reared from 64 and 320 queen cells in RJB colonies. The increase in the queen cell number was found to induce a slightly but significantly reduced body weight and smaller wing length and thorax width in the reared queens at emergence. However, the ovariole number and sealed brood area, an indicator of the queen fecundity, were not observed to be significantly influenced. With respect to body weight and ovariole number, all the reared queens satisfied the current criteria for high-quality queens. Our findings provide evidence for the efficient mass production of high-quality queens using RJB colonies.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/2/264queen cell numberqueen qualityqueen rearingroyal jellyovariole numberfecundity |
| spellingShingle | Buajiram Ahmat Ting Yang Chuan Ma Cheng Zong Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity Agriculture queen cell number queen quality queen rearing royal jelly ovariole number fecundity |
| title | Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity |
| title_full | Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity |
| title_fullStr | Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity |
| title_short | Increased Mass-Rearing of Queens in High Royal-Jelly-Producing Honey Bee Colonies (<i>Apis mellifera ligustica</i>) Generates Smaller Queens with Comparable Fecundity |
| title_sort | increased mass rearing of queens in high royal jelly producing honey bee colonies i apis mellifera ligustica i generates smaller queens with comparable fecundity |
| topic | queen cell number queen quality queen rearing royal jelly ovariole number fecundity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/2/264 |
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