Study on the Effect of Bee Strain and Insemination Method on the Hygienic Behavior of Bee Colonies Tested Using the Pricking Method

Abstract

The process of artificial and natural insemination was carried out on the queen bees of the local and Carniolan strains in order to study their hygienic behavior and the Pricking method for the strains, as well as the cross-insemination results between them. The study results showed that the local honey bee strain T1 outperformed the other studied strains in its hygienic behavior, as the detection rate of the dead brood by Pricking was (44.16, 93.16, and 100) % respectively, after (1, 6, and 24) hours of conducting the study. The same strain also outperformed all other strains in removing the dead brood with a percentage ranging from (0.16, 22.66, and 100) % respectively, after (1, 6, and 24) hours of conducting the study. Moreover, the artificial insemination method generally outperformed the natural insemination method in the hygienic behavior of the bee colonies, as the detection rate of the brood in the artificially inseminated bee strains A2 was (40.91, 91.00, 97.33, and 100) % respectively, after (1, 6, 24, and 36) hours of conducting the study. A2 also outperformed the A1 insemination method in terms of the percentage of removing the dead brood by Pricking, with a percentage ranging from (0.00, 17.08, 96.91, and 100) % respectively, after (1, 6, 24, and 36) hours of conducting the study.