Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON BEE SCIENCES, Afyonkarahisar, Türkiye, 16 - 18 Haziran 2022, ss.141-142
Honey bees are social insects that live in communities called colonies. Under normal conditions, there are tens
of thousands of worker bees and a few hundred drones, the number of which varies according to the seasons,
with a queen in this social structure. The queen is the only individual of the colony capable of laying eggs, the
mother of all colony individuals and the genetic source of all hereditary characteristics of the colony. Because
it is the source of the hereditary structure, the strength of the colony, its hard work, being sensitive or resistant
to diseases, being good-natured or combative, wintering ability, honey yield, tendency to swarm and propolis
collection, etc., depend on the queen and the drones that mate with her. A good quality queen should have a
high body weight, multiple ovaries and a large spermatheca. In addition, the queen must mate successfully
and store sufficient spermatozoa in the spermathecae sac and be free from diseases and pests. On the other
hand, it should not be forgotten that the performance of the colony varies depending on the genetic structure
of the queens as well as the genetic structure of the drones mating with her. This shows us that to increase
colony performance, it is not only sufficient to rearing quality queens, but also to rearing quality drones.
Especially in commercial queen rearing, rearing drones in sufficient quantity and quality is the most important
factor that closely affects the quality of the queen produced.