The Effects of Number of Queen Cell Cups Given to the Feeding Colonies and Harvesting Intervals on the Yield of Royal Jelly of Colonies

Authors: Semiramis KUTLUCA, Ferat GENÇ, Ahmet DODOLOĞLU

Abstract: The average acceptance rate of larvae, average yield of royal jelly per cell, average yield of royal jelly per colony at each time and total yield of royal jelly per colony were examined in feeding colonies in this research and 30 and 45 larvae to the each nursery colony were grafted in the groups of A and B respectively. Royal jelly was harvested at 48 hr intervals in the groups of A1 and B1 and 72 hr intervals in the groups of A2 and B2. The acceptance rate of larvae for the colonies in group of A was 87.74% and it was 83.63% for the colonies in group of B. The difference between these values was found highly significant (P<0.01). The difference of A and B groups and the difference of two harvesting circles in respect to the average yield of royal jelly per cell and the average yield of royal jelly at each time in the colonies were highly significant (P<0.01). But the difference of the total yield of A and B was found unsignificant. Interaction between the number of queen cells and harvesting intervals regarding to average yield of royal jelly at each time of the colonies was significant (P<0.01); but interaction between those two factors in respect to the yield of royal jelly per cell and total yield per colony was found not significant. Increasing the number of queen cells given to the nursery colonies caused to the decreasing the yield of royal jelly per cell; but that caused to the increasing total yield of royal jelly per colony in the production period in Erzurum conditions. On the other hand, the yield of royal jelly per cell at the harvesting interval 72 hr was higher than those of 48 hr harvesting. But there was no difference between 48 hr and 72 hr harvesting in terms of total yield of royal jelly per colony. By this reason, grafting 45 larvae to the each feeding colony and harvesting at 72 hr intervals was accepted more profitable.

Keywords: Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.), production of royal jelly, number of larvae, harvesting interval.

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