Jerzy Woyke

What Happens to Diploid Drone Larvae in a Honeybee Colony

SUMMARYQueens producing brood of only 50% survival were bred by individual sibling mating. The non-surviving brood in these colonies consists of eggs laid in worker cells which hatch to give diploid drone larvae, which quickly disappear. Hive entrance observations failed to provide evidence that the bees carried the diploid drone larvae out of the hive, and no young larvae were found on sheets of plastic placed under the combs to catch debris. Investigations in special observation hives showed that all the disappearing larvae were eaten alive by the workers.

Drone Larvae from Fertilized Eggs of the Honeybee

SUMMARYQueens bred for two or three generations by brother-sister matings laid fertilized eggs in worker cells, from which larvae hatched, but only 50% of them survived in the hive.Pieces of worker combs containing eggs laid by these queens were put into an incubator, and the hatched larvae grafted into queen cells on royal jelly and left in the incubator for 24 hours. The sex of these larvae was determined by microscopic anatomical investigations; it could be shown that about 50% of these larvae were male and 50% female. Thus males can develop not only from unfertilized, but also from fertilized eggs; such diploid drones are not seen as adults in the hive, because the diploid drone larvae disappear from the cells within a few hours of being hatched.A new mechanism of sex determination in the honeybee is suggested on the basis of these results: a series of alleles exists at locus X; heterozygotes result in females, but azygotes and homozygotes in males. It is therefore proposed that locus X be called the ...

Causes of Repeated Mating Flights by Queen Honeybees

SUMMARYObservations were made on 2434 flights of 628 queens. Of 303 once-inseminated queens left alive for further observations, 63 % flew again and 38 % mated on a second flight; 8 % of the queens flew yet again, and 6% were inseminated a third time. Sperms in the spermatheca were counted in 207 queens returning from a mating flight or departing on the next one.The average number of sperms in the spermatheca of all queens that started to lay was 5.340 million; of those that mated on one flight only 5.057 million; of those mated on two and three flights 5.979 and 6.975 million respectively.The average number of sperms from the first mating flight, in the spermatheca of queens mating on a second flight, was 3.462 million; for queens not mating again it was 4.628 million, and for queens not even flying again, 5.248 million. It is concluded that the amount of sperm from the first mating flight influences the likelihood of a second flight and successive matings.

Natural and Artificial Insemination of Queen Honeybees

Dr. Jerzy Woyke has recently published a detailed account of some of his work in Pszczel. Zes. Nauk. 4(3/4): 183–275 (1960), in Polish. The results he obtained are of great interest to queen breeders and to all other beekeepers concerned with the mating of their queens, and include the following:

Cannibalism and Brood-Rearing Efficiency in the Honeybee

SummaryDuring 34 continuous observations of hive entrances averaging 7 hours a day, 3% of brood disappeared from 5539 cells recorded. No brood or parts of brood could be found in the hive, and none were seen being carried out of it. It is therefore concluded that the brood that disappeared was eaten by the workers.Records of 6606 eggs and the individuals arising from them showed that the youngest brood was most likely, and the oldest least likely, to be eaten. There were significant differences between spring, summer and autumn. Brood survived to emergence of the adult at 75–80% in spring, 80–90% in summer, and 50–75% in autumn. Significantly more drone brood than worker brood was eaten. Similar survival rates were found (for worker and for drone brood) in queenright and queenless colonies in spring and summer, but in autumn, significantly more of both survived in queenless (75%) than in queenright (50–65%) colonies. Thus, by dequeening a colony in autumn, its efficiency in drone rearing could be raised t...

A Method of Rearing Diploid Drones in a Honeybee Colony

SummaryVarious modifications of techniques for rearing diploid drone brood were tested on 13 900 low-survival larvae (50% female, 50% diploid drone) from inbred queens. Moderate larval survival was obtained after rearing the larvae in an incubator for varying lengths of time and then transferring them to worker cells, but no adult drones emerged. Satisfactory results were obtained from transferring the diploid larvae to drone cells in a colony after 2–3 days in an incubator, and adult drones emerged in relatively greater numbers than from control groups of normal haploid brood. Artificial rearing, however, tended to have an adverse effect on survival rate, and to avoid this, larvae were reared in queen cells of equivalent age in the colony for two days before transferring them to drone cells as before; this method was also successful.A total of 2286 adult diploid drones were reared in the course of this work, and exact details are given of the techniques recommended.

Standard methods for instrumental insemination of Apis mellifera queens

Summary Honey bee queens are highly polyandrous and mate in flight. Instrumental insemination is an essential tool that provides complete control of honey bee mating for research and breeding purposes. The technique requires specialized equipment to anesthetize and immobilize the queen and to collect and deliver semen from the drones. Semen is harvested from mature drones by hand eversion of the endophallus and collected into a syringe. The queen is placed in a chamber and anesthetized during the procedure of insertion of semen into the oviducts. Queens are introduced into colonies and their performance can equal to that of naturally mated queens, given proper technique and care.

Brood-Rearing Efficiency and Absconding in Indian Honeybees

SummaryThe population of colonies, and their honey production, depend very much upon the efficiency of brood production. Brood of Apis cerana indica in India was very scattered. An irregular pattern of egg laying by the queens was a contributory factor, but the main cause of the scattered brood was that the number of eggs laid gave rise to more larvae than the bees could rear. During the main period of nectar flow about 95% of larvae were sealed. During a moderate intake of nectar and pollen the bees reared about 70% of larvae to 4 days, but only 50% were sealed. During a dearth of nectar and pollen the queens continued to lay, but the worker bees ate all the larvae, and no brood was reared. Absconding colonies left viable eggs in the combs.Because of these low and variable levels of brood-rearing efficiency, it is impossible to calculate the daily oviposition rate of a queen from the amount of brood present in a colony.Observations in brood rearing in Apis florea and Apis dorsata are included.

Rearing and Viability of Diploid Drone Larvae

SUMMARYFour queens, giving brood only half of which normally survived, were bred by individual sibling mating. To protect the brood of these queens from bees, pieces of combs containing eggs were put into the incubator, without bees. After the eggs hatched, 707 larvae were grafted into queen cells on royal jelly, and were reared further in the incubator. On the fifth day the sex of the live larvae could be determined: half were female and half male. The viability of the diploid drone larvae was no lower up to this time than that of female larvae. Larvae were reared further, giving both queen and drone pupae and imagines. The larvae from so-called ‘lethal eggs’, which are normally eaten in the hive, are thus viable diploid drones from fertilized eggs. This paper also reports for the first time the rearing of adult drones and of normal queens, beginning from the egg stage, outside the hive without any contact with bees.

Genetic Proof of the Origin of Drones from Fertilized Eggs of the Honeybee

SUMMARYHomozygous cordovan queens and homozygous chartreuse queens (from crosses of heterozygous mutant mothers with mutant fathers) were each inseminated from a single wild-black brother. After tests for survival rate of brood had been carried out, four queens producing low-survival brood were chosen, and the eggs they laid in both worker and drone cells were hatched in an incubator. The 321 young larvae were reared further in the incubator.Drone pupae grafted as larvae from worker cells and originating from the cordovan queen showed some characters of the father. Stronger evidence is supplied by brood produced by the chartreuse queens. Drone prepupae and pupae reared in the incubator from eggs they laid in drone cells showed only the genetic character of the mother, as expected. But drone prepupae and pupa from eggs in worker cells laid by the same queens, and reared from the egg stage in an incubator, showed the genetic character of the father, as did the female offspring of these queens. This proves t...