Читать книгу Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 98

Beekeepers often refer to a queen's “age” in years. But biologically, chronology has little to do with it – a queen's “age” is a function of the number of viable spermatozoa remaining in her spermatheca, or more specifically, her ability to fertilize each egg laid in a worker cell (Baer et al. 2016).

Practical application: Thus, in a colony in a commercial operation in California or Florida, supplementally fed for near year‐round broodrearing, a queen may begin to run out of spermatozoa in the late summer of her second year. On the other hand, a queen in a cold‐winter area, in which she rests for five months of the year, may be productive for several seasons.