EFFECT OF QUEEN CAGING CONDITIONS ON INSEMINATION RESULTS

The study was performed in a honeybee breeding apiary at Teodorów in 2004. Honeybee queens were caged in queenless colonies or in an incubator. Temperature was compared in spaces between frames of colonies where either non-inseminated queens were kept in Zander cages without attendant bees or instrumentally inseminated queens in “Folchron ” mailing cages were attended by bees. Temperature was also measured in cages with queens that were placed in beehives or in incubators. Temperature records were also taken outside the beehives and in the incubators. During the final investigations the manner in which the queens were kept before and after insemination was compared for its impact on the filling of queen spermathecae and on the evacuation of sperm from the oviduct. The temperature in the frame spaces of honeybee nests in which the cages with instrumentally inseminated bees together with attendant bees were placed was found to average 34.5°C and to be significantly higher than that measured in the frame spaces containing cages with non-inseminated queens and without attendant bees. In each of the nurse colonies with inseminated queens different thermal conditions prevailed, with ambient temperature having a significant impact