Effects of Rearing Periods on Some Reproductive Characteristics of Caucasian (Apis mellifera caucasica) Queen Bees

This research was carried out to determine some reproductive characteristics such as larval acceptance rate, length of queen cell, weight at emergence, mating rate and pre-oviposition period of Caucasian race honey bee queens (Apis mellifera caucasica). It was conducted in the province of Ardahan in the months of June, July and August between the years of 2013-2015. In this study, Caucasian race bee colonies were used. The larvae were grafted by the Doolittle’s method were given to the starter colonies which were prepared without the queen. In terms of larva acceptance rate, the difference between the years was found to be insignificant, while the difference between the months was found significant (P<0.01). The average length of the queen cells obtained from the research colonies was determined as 30.11 ± 0.039 mm, while the average length of the queen cells between the years of 2013-2015 were found to be 33.43 ± 0.056 mm, 25.87 ± 0.050 mm and 32.53 ± 0.051 mm respectively. In the study, the average weight at emergence of queen bees was determined as 203.34 ± 1.97 mg, while the averages between the years of 2013-2015 were detected to be 214.42 ± 3.68 mg, 188.37 ± 2.75 mg and 207.25 ± 2.83 mg respectively. The effect of both months and years on the weight at emergence was found significant (P<0.01). The effect of years on pre-oviposition period was found to be insignificant (p> 0.05) while the effect of months was found to be significant (P<0.01).