EFFECT OF NUMBER OF GRAFTS, MATERIAL OF CELL CUPS AND KIND OF FEED TO APIS MELLIFERA LINNAEUS CELL BUILDER COLONIES ON ROYAL JELLY PRODUCTION DURING SUMMER UNDER PUNJAB CONDITIONS

摘要

The present studies were undertaken to standardize technology for maximizing royal jelly production from Apis mellifera Linnaeus colonies during non-breeding (summer) season. During this study, the effect of number of grafts, material of queen cell cups and kind of feedings/diets to cell builder colonies was studied on royal jelly production under Punjab conditions. In 20 bee-frame strength on 20 combs queen-right colonies, 24 hr old larvae in plastic and beeswax primed cell cups were grafted in varying number of queen cell cups per colony providing the different kind of feedings to various cell builder colonies. Data on royal jelly yield per cup were recorded 72 hr following grafting. The results revealed that vitamin B_6 supplemented pollen substitute resulted in significantly the highest absolute number of the accepted cells (36.96) and mean royal jelly yield (27.64 mg per cell). Among various numbers of grafts, the highest absolute number of the accepted grafts (31.40) and royal jelly yield (38.06 mg/ cell) were recorded with the use of 90 grafts. Significantly higher absolute number of grafts (28.28) and royal jelly yield (26.76 mg/ cell) were observed in PVC cell cups than wax cell cups (23.87 and 17.04 mg, respectively). Combining all the three factors, colonies fed on vitamin supplemented pollen substitute and provided 90 larvae one each in PVC cell cups resulted in significantly the highest number of accepted grafts and royal jelly yield (45.33 and 63.21 mg per cell, respectively). Following the best levels of the tested factors, total royal jelly production potential of A. mellifera colonies during summer of Punjab has been found out to be 113.80 g.