Grafting worker larvae to obtain uniform Apis mellifera queen bees in support of the evaluation and identification of forage plant species

¹ Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang 65145, Indonesia
² Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Islamic University of Malang, Malang 65144, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: minartiherman@ub.ac.id

Abstract

The productivity of bee colonies is greatly influenced by the performance of the queen in production. This research aims to obtain uniform Apis mellifera queen bees, both in terms of age and morphometrics, which will be developed into colonies to evaluate quality and identify bee forage plant species in grazing areas. The study was conducted in two different locations: Sukorame Village, Tumpang Subdistrict, Malang Regency, and Pajaran Village, Poncokusumo Subdistrict, Malang Regency. Pollen sample analysis was carried out at the Genetech Saraswanti Indo Surabaya Laboratory. The research method involved field observations and direct experiments, focusing on the research locations and grafting techniques. Data collected included both primary and secondary data, and data analysis was performed using unpaired t-tests to compare data from the two different research locations. The research results indicate that the difference in location has no significant effect (P>0.05) on the Apis mellifera queen bee production using the grafting method in terms of the measured morphological variables. The average abdomen length in Sukorame and Pajaran locations was 9.08±1.65 mm and 9.11±1.37 mm, respectively. The average abdomen width in Sukorame and Pajaran locations was 4.99±0.41 mm and 4.96±0.36 mm, respectively. The average abdomen height in Sukorame and Pajaran locations was 4.18±0.51 mm and 4.35±0.57 mm, respectively. The difference in location with the grafting method also had no significant effect (P>0.05) on the proboscis length, with average values of 1.30±0.39 mm for Sukorame and 1.45±0.43 mm for Pajaran locations. The use of different locations in the production of Apis mellifera queen bees using the grafting method provides consistent performance in terms of abdomen length, abdomen width, abdomen height, and proboscis length.