Effect of nutritional supplements on queen cell production in honey bee

[Chrisbarlow]

Abstract: Honey bees are an important means of earning a living both at small and commercial levels. Maximum
benefits can be obtained from strong colonies and in order to maintain strong colonies a good beekeeper requeens
the colonies every second year. This requires a number of queens. The advances in beekeeping technology have
made it possible to rear queens artificially or naturally. There is scope for improvement of these methods. The aim of the present study was to investigate if nutritional supplements could facilitate queen cell production in spring and
autumn seasons. Becosule, thiamine, yeast and sugar solutions were fed to the honey bee colonies. The greatest
number of queen cells was produced in the yeast fed colonies in spring. Bee mortality was observed in case of
becosule. Perhaps the formulation contained some components which were toxic to honey bees. The effect on
queen cell production by the different nutrients was in the order of Yeast > Thiamine > Becosule

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[AdamD]

An interesting little study. However the forage is significantly different in India to here in the UK so I think it might be difficult to assume that we should be giving yeast tablets to our bees here. Maybe a UK or European experiment is required.

[Chrisbarlow]

i agree about the forage being different Adam but I suspect the flower diversity and quantity will be far superior to anything here in the UK. As my my perception of the British countryside is that is every inch is tilled, where as India might have vast areas untouched due to the shear size.

[Sipa]

Honeybee nutrition is a complex subject, therefore focusing on a single nutrient or small cohort can be misleading.
Not all yeasts are created equal !

More important to focus on phagostimulation and what stimulates and enhances the hypopharageal gland to produce more royal jelly to produce well provisioned queen cells

[Chrisbarlow]

I agree Sipa, but it does highlight even on a basic level that supplimentation can pay dividends. The questions of what to feed and when is another research paper.

[Jim Norfolk]

Chris, have a look on Google maps. Chandigarh is a patchwork of small fields with crops and dusty looking villages. They may have less forage than we do.

[Chrisbarlow]

Your right Jim, its a big place with an aweful lot of agricultural around it, there is an extremely large nature reserve on one side.