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

abstract
Comparative efficiency of Doolittle and novel techniques (Karl Jenter and Cup kit) of queen bee rearing during autumn 2012, revealed that maximum larval acceptance (54.00%), queen cell raising (50.00%), its sealing (46.00%), and emergence of gynes (40.67%) were recorded in Cup kit apparatus. The mean weight of newly emerged gynes was 183.64 mg in case of Cup kit and the maximum from Doolittle method in plastic cell cups (202.57mg). Although mean weight of the gynes produced from Cup kit was less than those produced from plastic cell cups, but considering the better performance of Cup kit in terms of acceptance of larvae and number of emerged gynes, it proved to be the best alternative for queen bee rearing.