A Study on the Rate of Mating Success and the Age of Egg-laying of the Queens of the European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Reared in Beekeeping Area in North Thailand.

Abstract

Queens of the European honey bee Apis rnellifera L. were reared at S.P. Apiary located in the province of Chiang Rai during September - November 1982. From 215 queens raised for the experiment, 168 queens mated successfully and returned to the mating nuclei. Only one queen did not mate. The mating success was 78% which was in the normal range of the rate of success in commercial queen rearing operation in the temperate region i.e. in the U.S. Altogether 46 queens (21.4%) were lost. This was probably due to the present of predator hornets and insect-eating birds within the vicinity of the apiary. Egglaying of the mated queens commenced when the queens were 7 - 14 days old. The majority of the mated queens (80.4%) started to lay eggs when they were between 9 - 12 days old. Again, the age of egglaying of the queens raised for the experiment was within the same range of that of A. rneZZifera queens produced in the temperate.