author(s)
Shakib Vaziritabar and Sayed Mehdi Esmaeilzade

abstract
The aim of this study was to determine effect of different factors on the acceptance rates of grafted larvae by using the prepared queen cell cups in Karaj apiary and if there is difference of larvae acceptance after grafting one day old larvae in artificial wax queen cells that were for one hour prior to grafting in starter colonies for polishing and artificial wax queen cells that weren't in contact with bees. A brood frame rotation schedule maintains the colony as a queen rearer for further batches of queen cells. Three factors viz. bee strength/crowdiness, queenliness of the colony and priming status of queen cell cups were evaluated on graft acceptance. The combined effect of the different levels of bee strength, queenliness and priming status of cell cups was non-significant on the mean number of accepted grafts (8.20-44.17 i.e. 7.85-50.18%). Quality of bee queens depends primarily on the age of the brood used for queen rearing.