author(s)
Navneet Kaur Dhaliwal, Jaspal Singh and Pardeep K Chhuneja

abstract
Influence of developmental stage of brood (<24 h old eggs, 24-48 h old eggs and <24 h old larvae) transferred to the cell builder colony, type of queen cell cup (Cupkit/ Karl Jenter) and condition of the cell builder colony (with/ without queen bee) on weight of Apis mellifera queen bees reared was studied during the autumn breeding season. Queen bees with the highest mean weight (203.83 mg) were obtained when 24-48 h old eggs from Cupkit were transferred to queenless cell builder colonies. Irrespective of the apparatus used and queenliness of the colony, significant effect of the stage of brood transferred to the cell builder colony was observed on the weight of the queen bee produced, as the queen bees reared from 24-48 h old eggs were significantly heavier (198.93 mg) than those reared from <24 h old larvae (189.24 mg) and <24 h old eggs (178.57 mg).