SUMMARY

Honeybee queens were instrumentally inseminated with 8 mm ’ of semen. Next they were kept without workers in nursery cages in a colony, or with 0 up to 350 attendant worker bees in small boxes placed in an incubator at 34 °C. The queens were killed and dissected two days after insemination. Queens kept in nursery cages had on the average 2.5 million spermatoza in their spermatheca. An increasing number of attendant workers resulted in a higher number of spermatozoa penetrating queens spermatheca. The highest number of 4.5 million of spermatozoa was found in the spermatheca of queens kept with 250 workers after instrumental insemination. These queens had 1.8 times more spermatozoa in the spermatheca than those kept without workers. It is recommended to keep queens for two days in an incubator after instrumental insemination, with 250 attendant workers