Early Death of Newly Emerged Worker Honeybees in Laboratory Test Cages

Abstract

Newly emerged worker progeny of certain queens exhibited an early period of death after being put into laboratory test cages. Examination of early death in the progeny of 82 queens demonstrated that: it occurred during days 1–8 in the cage; 0–22% of the cage population died during this period; among progeny of the median queen, an average of 2–0% of the bees died; there were significant differences in the incidence of early death among the progeny of different queens (P<0·001); the incidence of early death appeared to be repeatable. Early death in the cage could be virtually eliminated by providing young laying queens.