Effect of Introducing Methods of Honey Bee <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. Queens on the Number of Spermatozoa After Instrumental Insemination

The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of inserting methods of instrumentally inseminated honeybee Apis mellifera L. queens on the number of spermatozoa in their reproductive system. The experimental virgin queens were instrumentally inseminated with 8 mm3 of semen, then they were divided into 3 groups based on their introduction procedures, which are: Group (A) was introduced directly after insemination into mini nuclei, Groups (B) and (C) were introduced in queenless colony under semi-spherical queen excluder cages and semi-spherical screen cages, respectively. The control was represented by virgin queens that were introduced in mini nuclei and left for natural mating. The results showed that, the highest spermatozoa number was obtained when using (A), followed by (B), and the least number was obtained when using (C). No significant difference was found between sperm number in (A) and (B) but both of them differed significantly from (C). These results demonstrated that maintaining several instrumentally inseminated queens in semi-spherical queen excluder cages can conserve resources and time, yielding optimal outcomes for sperm cell.