The responses of Apis mellifera jemenitica to different artificial queen rearing techniques

In the current study, we investigated if any variations exist in acceptance rate of grafted larvae and quality of queens reared in different queen cell cup sizes, between wet and dry grafting and between queen right and queen less conditions of A. m. jemenitica colonies. The acceptance rate of grafted larvae in different queen cell cup sizes (7.0 mm, 7.5 mm, 8.0 mm, 8.5 mm) were varying from 69 to 71% and the variations were not significant among the different queen cups sizes but averagely lower than the acceptances recorded for other races. Out of the 172 dry grafted larvae, only 56.4% of them were accepted while in wet grafting out of 174 grafted larvae 77.01% were accepted. Regarding the rate of sealing, 48.84% and 71.84% of them sealed for dry and wet grafts, respectively. The observed variation in the rate of acceptance and sealing were significant (N = 346, df = 1, P < 0.0001) between the two techniques. However, there was no significant difference in fresh weight of emerged queens between the two grafting methods. Out of the 324 grafted larvae given to queen right and queen less starter colonies each; 106 (32.72%) and 252 (73.68%) were accepted in queen right and queen less starter colonies, respectively and the variation was highly significant at P < 0.0001. The total number of sealed pupae were 82 (25.31%) and 216 (63.16%) for queen right and queen less colonies, respectively and the variations was significant at P < 0.0001. From the study it can be concluded that A. m. jemenitica colonies can rear significantly more queens under wet grafting and in queen less colonies conditions than dry grafting and queen right conditions.