Effect of supplementation with giberelic Acid (ga3) in Apis mellifera colonies associated to bee queen cells production.

SZAWARSKI, NICOLÁS; MITTON, GIULIA; RAMOS, FACUNDO; PABLO REVAINERA; BRASESCO, CONSTANZA; LORENZO LAMATTINA; MAGGI, MATÍAS

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de las Sociedades de Biociencias.; 2018

Abstract: The general objective of this work was to evaluate theeffect of gibberellic acid (GA) supplementation on Apis melliferacolonies over the production of queen bee cells and hypopharyngealglands development from nurse bees. We worked with 2 startercolonies (Langsthrot hives) subjected to the vertical semi-orphanedmethod of production of bee queen cells. Each starter colony receiveda specific treatment: colony 1 (i1) was the control group andfed with 200 ml of 66% sugar syrup only; colony 2 (i2) received 25uM GA in 200 ml of 66% sugar syrup. Each beehive received 10applications of their respective treatment every 3 days. For eachcolony, 24 larvae were transferred to the upper body the day afterthe first treatment was applied. Five days after, the total number ofaccepted larvae was recorded, defined as royal cell that had beensealed. After the 5th application, 250 nurse bees were collected fromroyal cells to measure the weight of their heads (indirect quality estimatorof the hypopharyngeal glands development). In the laboratory,50 bees were randomly selected from each treatment, the headswere dissected and their weights were recorded by analytical balance.Wilcoxon test and t-test were used to determine if there weredifferences in the production of cells and head weights respectively.In the i2 colony, higher percentages were obtained in the efficiencyof royal cells (p