Keeping queen bees chilled in indoor refrigeration units can make the practice of “queen banking” — storing excess queens in the spring to supplement hives in the fall — more stable and less labor-intensive, a Washington State University study found.
Keeping queen bees chilled in indoor refrigeration units can make the practice of “queen banking” — storing excess queens in the spring to supplement hives in the fall — more stable and less labor-intensive, a Washington State University study found. It may also help strengthen honey bee survival in the face of a changing climate.
In a paper published in the Journal of Apicultural Research, researchers compared queen banks stored in refrigerated units to those stored in the conventional way outdoors and an “unbanked” control group. They found that the queens stored at cooler temperatures had a higher survival rate and required less maintenance than those stored outdoors.
This study, and future potential refinement, could be another piece in the ultimate puzzle of reducing the loss of bee colonies each year, said senior author Brandon Hopkins, an assistant research professor in WSU’s Department of Entomology.
Read more at: Washington State University
A WSU beekeeping scientist prepares a queen bee bank near the refrigerators where the banks were stored. (Photo Credit: Brandon Hopkins, Washington State University)
