Effects of a Synthetic Queen Mandibular Pheromone on Emergency Queen Rearing in the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an artificial queen pheromone (TempQueen) in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies that lack a queen to ensure that beekeepers are not using a product that is an unnecessary expense. Honey bee queens signal their presence in a colony by a specialized pheromone called Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP). In the absence of this signal, honey bee workers will initiate emergency queen rearing, in which they raise many queen cells to increase the chance that one new queen bee will be viable. This process can take a month before a new queen begins laying eggs, which can inhibit pollination services and honey production. Beekeepers who financially rely on their colonies may use an artificial QMP, a product called “TempQueen,” as a false signal of queen presence so that workers will continue to be productive. However, there is no data supporting the claims TempQueen advertises. This study looks at if TempQueen stops a colony from raising queen cells in the claimed product exposure time of three weeks due to a lack of other queen-presence signals. Queenless colonies provided with TempQueen not only raised queen cells, but did not raise a significantly different number of queen cells compared to colonies that did not receive TempQueen. This is consistent with other studies and supports the hypothesis that queens have an additional signal that indicates her presence to worker bees.