A Comparison of Instrumentally Inseminated and Naturally Mated Queens

Summary

Sister queen honeybees (Apis mellifera), 59 instrumentally inseminated (IIS) and 59 naturally mated (NM), were produced in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and put into field colonies at 3 locations in Alberta, Canada and at 1 location in Louisiana, USA. Survival of the IIS queens was lower than that of the NM queens; 37 IIS queens and 50 NM queens survived from August 1981 to May 1982, and 18 IIS and 34 NM queens survived until August 1982 (P<0·01). At all 4 locations, the colonies with NM queens had 21–73% more capped brood in May (February in Louisiana) than did colonies with IIS queens (P<0·01). Probably because of this difference in brood production, the colonies with NM queens produced more honey. Over a 12-month period, the mean loss of spermatozoa from IIS queens was 0·9 million (28% of the original number in the spermatheca), and the mean loss for NM queens was 1·5 million (27%).