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SummaryHoney bee queens are highly polyandrous and mate in flight. Instrumental insemination is an essential tool that provides complete control of honey bee mating for research and breeding purposes. The technique requires specialized equipment to anesthetize and immobilize the queen and to collect and deliver semen from the drones. Semen is harvested from mature drones by hand eversion of the endophallus and collected into a syringe. The queen is placed in a chamber and anesthetized during the procedure of insertion of semen into the oviducts. Queens are introduced into colonies and their performance can equal to that of naturally mated queens, given proper technique and care. Métodos estándar para la inseminación artificial de reinas de Apis mellifera ResumenLas reinas de las abejas melíferas presentan un elevado grado de poliandria y se aparean durante el vuelo. La inseminación artificial es una herramienta esencial que proporciona un control completo del apareamiento de las abejas con fines de investigación y de cría. La técnica requiere de un equipo especializado para anestesiar e inmovilizar a la reina y para colectar y administrar el semen de los zánganos. El semen se obtiene de zánganos maduros por eversión manual del endofalo y se recoge en una jeringa. La reina se coloca en una cámara y se mantiene anestesiada durante el proceso de inserción del semen en los oviductos. Las reinas se introducen en las colonias y su rendimiento puede ser igual al de las reinas que se aparearon de forma natural, si se realiza la técnica y se da la atención adecuada.

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S u m m a r yThe research was conducted at the apiary of the Faculty of Agriculture, Zanjan University in Zanjan, Iran. Queens were reared in 24 Apis mellifera meda honey bee rearing colonies. The colonies were assigned to 4 grafting larvae age groups; 1 day old larvae, 2 day old larvae, and 3 day old larvae, and the last group reared emergency queen cells. The groups were divided into the 2 feeding groups: fed additionally and no fed. The effects of the age of the grafted larvae and the effects of supplemental feeding on 9 morphological characteristics of queens were measured. The results showed that the age of the larvae significantly affected the morphological characteristics of reared queens, and thus, their quality. Queens reared from 1 day old larvae were of the highest quality. These queens were significantly heavier (158.83 mg) and had significantly larger spermatheca (0.99 mm 3 ) than queens reared from larvae 2 and 3 days old. Queens from emergency queen cells were of lower quality than queens reared from 1 day old larvae. However, queens from emergency queen cells were of higher quality than queens reared from 3 day old larvae. The supplemental feeding significantly increased most morphological characteristics of the reared queens. The different ages of the larvae did not significantly affect the wing length nor did supplemental feeding affect the wing length.