Fact sheet: Mating for queen quality
Honey bee queens mate with 12 males on average. By mating with a large number of males, queens avoid low brood viability. Additional benefits include...
HONEY BEE & POLLINATION
Fact sheet: Artificial insemination of honey bee queens – how many mates is enough?
4 pages
Published: 5 Dec 2018
Author(s): Ben Oldroyd, Nadine Chapman
Share this content
-
Download report PDF
Download
In this study we examined whether colonies headed by queens inseminated with the semen of 16 males outperformed colonies headed by queens inseminated with the semen of 8 males. The study found genetic diversity reduces the likelihood of brood inviability, colony failure and disease incidence, while increasing colony size and amount of honey produced.