Factors Affecting Queen Bee Quality

The basic rule in honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) rearing is to work with qualified queens. Quality queen means strong and healthy colonies. Honey bee colonies are a social community, each managed by a single queen bee. The queen bee is the only female that produces eggs in the colony under normal conditions, and the quality and healthy queen is important for the continuity of the colony. Many factors affect the quality of the queen bee, such as the rearing colony, the age of the transferred larva and the transfer medium, the season, cell emergence weight, spermatheca charged, the characteristics of the starter and finisher hives. In this paper, the issues to be considered in raising a quality queen are emphasized.