VARIATIONS IN THE QUALITY OF VIRGIN QUEENS OF HONEY BEE THAT PRODUCED COMMERCIALLY FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES IN EGYPT DURING TWO SEASONS

For investigating the quality of virgin queens of honey bee that produced commercially in egypt, that purchased form four large commercial queen producers located at assiut, elgharbya and menoufiya through two seasons (march and august). forty virgin queens for each were purchased. the physical characters (fresh weigh, head length and width, thorax length and width, fore wing length and width, hind wing length and width, sum tergits length (3+4) , number of ovarioles of the right ovary , volume of the spermatheca and presence of nosema disease were measured. queen quality significantly varied among commercial sources in physical characters and presence of nosema disease. there were significant differences in the two months of queen’s rearing. it was indicated that the most suitable season for rearing queens in egypt were late summer. the present study provides a valuable snapshot of the current status of virgin queens’ quality that produce in egypt as being comparatively low.