Dinky queen can lay

[beepro]

Hi, All!


Thought to give an update on the dinky queen situation.   So I moved this mated tiny queen over to the 5 frame nuc hive about 2 weeks ago.   The worker
bees seem to like her. She's just a little longer than a regular worker bee.   Right away she start laying and in good solid pattern too.  I'm surprised that she can be so thorough on laying in the cells.  Never have I seen such a tiny queen can be a prolific layer also.   All my other queens that I raised over the years are larger queens.   So this little bee test has proven so far that a tiny queen can be a good laying queen too although she's not that well fed while still in her development stage.  My only concern is does she has enough sperms to last through her entire life cycle?   Does small queen and large queen store the same amount of sperms to last her entire life time?


One small laying queen:   http://imgbox.com/j3IGlHWO

[GSF]

does she has enough sperms to last through her entire life cycle? Yes, because when she quits laying she's a gonner :)

Good question about the amount stored. I too had a small queen that laid pretty dang good. When I first saw her I planned on pinching her. After giving her enough time she proved to be good.

[Michael Bush]

A study:
Histological estimates of ovariole number in honey bee queens, Apis mellifera, reveal lack of correlation with other queen quality measures
http://jinsectscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/1/82.abstract

"Overall, and within most of the individual samples, there was no correlation of ovariole number with other morphological attributes such as thoracic width, wing length, or wet weight. Queens from two of the sources, however, displayed a significant negative relationship between wet weight and ovariole number. This study provides baseline data on ovariole number in commercial honey bee queens in the United States at a time when honey bee populations are declining; the method described can be used in studies relating ovariole number in queens to egg production and behavior."

Queens change size a lot both, growing and shrinking as they are laying more or less.  It's difficult to judge the value of a queen by physical appearance.

[beepro]

Yes, Mr. Bush.  Just like never judge a book by its cover.  Now I know after spending 5  seasons of
rearing queens.   A small queen can be a good laying queen also.  This really change my perspective toward
smaller queen from now on.  I wonder if a larger queen can store more sperms than a small queen?

[Michael Bush]

>I wonder if a larger queen can store more sperms than a small queen?

They all start out small... so it's actually difficult to say if she IS a small queen until she's laying full steam.  There are studies that go all directions on this topic, but a queen who is allowed to lay uninterrupted develops larger ovarioles and is more fertile and better accepted.  I think it's not so much whether or not she can store more or not but whether or not she is well mated.  Her abdomen can stretch a lot as evidenced by the growing and shrinking when laying and not laying.

[beepro]

So it doesn't matter how big or small the spermatheca is as long as they can store
the sperm.  Then I would assume that the a big or small queen has the same spermatheca size.

[Robo]

I have had some real tiny queens that have outperformed all other queens.   None have every made it past fall without failing or being superceded.

[beepro]

Big or small I rarely have queens made it into their 2nd season.  I killed them all before then.  Not on purpose, of course.   Maybe this dinky queen is
a good trial run for me.   Let's see if they supersede her or not?   I'll keep her around just for the learning experience for now.