Effect of Double Queen System on the Development and Foraging Activities of Apis mellifera Linn. Honey Bee Colonies

The two-queen system of colony management is based on the principle that honey production per unit number of bees increases as the population increases. Strong colonies not only produce more honey but they do it more efficiently than less populous colonies. Colony performance of A. mellifera under double queen system increased continuously throughout the spring season 2022. The maximum colony performance parameters viz., capped brood area (1236.35), pollen area (212.32) and honey area (4299.7) was observed in the T1 treatment and highest bee strength was observed in T2 treatment (8.82 bee-frames) followed by T1 treatment (8.79 bee-frames). The minimum colony performance parameters viz., capped brood area (563.43), pollen area (106.16), honey area (832.18) and bee strength (3.47 bee frames) was observed in the T8 treatment. The spring and autumn seasons of 2022 had the maximum foraging behaviour recorded between 1200 and 1300 hours in T1 treatment and the lowest foraging behaviour discovered between 1500 and 1600 hours. As regard to the foraging activity, the maximum number of incoming bees (107.02), outgoing bees (93.20) and nectar foragers (52.18) were recorded in T1 treatment and maximum number of pollen foragers’ (35.27) were recorded in T3 treatment. The minimum mean number of incoming bees (68.59), outgoing bees (50.31) and pollen foragers (16.09) were recorded in T8 treatment and minimum mean number of nectar foragers’ (28.01) were observed in T7 treatment.