Queen replacement: the key to prevent winter colony losses in Argentina

Perspectives from the Survey of Honey Bee Colony Losses During 2015–2016 in Argentina

“…The winter loss rate in Argentina (i.e., 13.0% total loss, 95% CI 11.7-14.3%; Figure 2) was placed between European and USA estimates for the same 2015-2016 season, and was reported respectively as 12.0% (95% CI 11.8-12.2%; Brodschneider et al, 2016) and 26.9% (95% CI 26.4-27.4%; Kulhanek et al, 2017). In comparison with the estimate of colony losses done by Giacobino et al (2016) for the winter of 2012-2013 in the province of Santa Fe (i.e. 11.4% average loss, 95% CI 8.8-14.1%), our 2015-2016 estimate is higher for the same province (19.0, 95% CI 3.1-34.9%).…”

“…Latin America is another important apicultural location in the world, however, information about honey bee colony losses is lacking in most of these countries (Requier, Garcia, Andersson, Oddi, & Garibaldi, 2017). Only recently, Antúnez, Invernizzi, Mendoza, vanEngelsdorp, and Zunino (2017) presented estimates of colony losses in Uruguay during 2013-2014 and Giacobino et al (2016), in the province of Santa Fe (central Argentina) during the winter of 2012-2013. To fill this knowledge gap, in 2016 we carried out a national monitoring program to assess honey bee colony losses in Argentina (Requier, Garcia, Andersson, Oddi, & Garibaldi, 2016), the first results of which are presented and discussed here.…”

Trends in beekeeping and honey bee colony losses in Latin America

“…More recently, Maggi et al (2016) stated that "several cases of colony losses and colony depopulation were reported by beekeepers throughout the continent, yet no accurate data has been published to date". Although Giacobino et al (2016) reported validated estimates (i.e., published in an international scientific journal with a peer-review process) of 11.4% of winter colony losses at regional scale in Argentina, only recently Ant unez, Invernizzi, Mendoza, van Engelsdorp, and Zunino (2017) published estimates at national scale for Uruguay, with 19.8 and 18.3% of summer and winter colony losses, respectively. However, Uruguay's results may not necessarily represent the situation of the whole LA, as this country only accounts for 7.5% of the beehives, 9.3% of the honey production, and 0.9% of the territory of LA (data for 2016 from FAOSTAT, 2018).…”

Honey Bee Queen Replacement: An Analysis of Changes in the Preferences of Polish Beekeepers through Decades

“…Therefore, replacement of queens is one of the basic elements of proper apiary management. It enables an increase in their productivity [5,[10][11][12][13]. In Poland, it is recommended to replace at least 30% of queens every year [20].…”

“…The cause-and-effect relationship is straightforward: The younger and more reproductive the queen is, the higher the number of workers and the greater the colony productivity are [2,7]. The consequences of neglecting the rejuvenation of queen populations by beekeepers may be severe, e.g., low colony productivity, a decrease in colony strength and disease resistance, swarming, overwintering failures, and colony losses, as well as more work and less work comfort [8][9][10][11][12][13]. On this account, the replacement of old, less and less fertile queens with new and high-quality ones should be treated as one of the essential beekeeping measures.…”