Instrumental Insemination of Honey Bee Queens During Flight Activity Predisposition Period 2. Number of Spermatozoa in Spermatheca

The effect of the instrumental insemination of honeybee queens after they performed their orientation flight or attempted to perform the flight, on the number of sperm in the spermatheca was observed. Naturally mated queens and instrumentally inseminated queens were examined. Queens were instrumentally inseminated under one of the following 4 circumstances: the instrumentally inseminated queens were either 7 day olds and had been given either a short or long-CO₂ treatment, or they were inseminated after the trial flight or after returning from the orientation flight. Queens from the various groups had a similar number of spermatozoa in their spermatheca (on average, from 4.7 to 5.3 million). The number of spermatozoa filling the spermatheca influenced both the color and the texture of spermathecae. Significant differences in the number of spermatozoa were stated. Instrumentally inseminated queens that did not lay eggs had significantly less spermatozoa in their spermathecae (3.9 mln) than egg laying queens (5.5 mln).