Relationship Between Number of Grafted Queen Cell Cups and Amount of Produced Royal Jelly in Honey Bee Colonies Apis mellifera L.

The experiment curried out to study the effect of number of grafted cell cups on number and percentage of accepted queen cells and the amount of royal jelly produced. 45 queen cell cups fixed on three alternated rows (or 15 X 3) on one wide cell-bar (3.5 X 42 cm) were used. The experimental colonies were divided into four different groups; each group was received 45, 90, 135 and 180 queen cells/colony on one, two, three and four cell bars, respectively. The experimental colonies were grafted with 24hrs old-larvae and the royal jelly was collected after 2.5 days after grafting (i.e. when the larvae became 3.5 days-old) and three successive cycles (batches) of royal jelly production were processed at 2.5 days intervals. The data indicated that the amount of produced royal jelly increased by increasing the number of grafted queen cell cups to reach the maximum (49, 88 g/colony) when 180 queen cells were used. These amounts decreased to 17.50, 38, 84 and 45.29 (g/colony) when 45, 90 and 135 queen cell cups were used, with significant differences between them. Regarding the amount of produced royal jelly/queen cell, the honey bee colonies grafted with 180 queen cells on four wide cell bars significantly obtained less amount of royal jelly per cell (132.26 mg/cell), followed by those grafted with 135 queen cells in three wide bars (150.76 mg/cell). Whereas the honey bee colonies grafted with 90 queen cells in two wide bars significantly obtained the highest amount of royal jelly per cell (196.48 mg/cell). Irrespective the number of queen cells, the first graft (batch) produced signify.