Effects of different number of grafted larvae on royal jelly production of Aegean ecotype (Apis mellifera Anatoliaca) and Italian (Apis mellifera ligustica ) X Aegean crossbred honey bee colonies

This research was conducted to determine royal jelly production of Anatolian Bees Aegean ekotype (A. m. anatoliaca) and Italian x Aegean crossbred honeybee in the conditions of South Aegean region. Therefore, royal jelly production has been donefive time by inocuation methool in total ( 4, 11, 18, 25 May an 1 June 2009) İn adadition to that the effects of royal jelly production by 150 and 200 numbers of larvae in each group was also determineal.Total colony yields of royal jelly (29.5±2.80 g and 23.3±2.56 g ), amount of royal jelly in a cup (245.3±19.88 mg and 187.8±21.70 mg) were higher in Aegean ecotype than Italian x Aegean crossbred, respectively. Total colony yields of royal jelly was not faund to be important as statiscally(P>0.05). But the differences among the genotypes and numbeof grafted larvae for amount of royal jelly in a cup were found to be statistically significant.Key words: Anatolian Honey Bee Aegean Ecotype (Apis mellifera anatoliaca), Italian Honey Bee (Apis mellifera ligustica ), royal jelly production, number of grafted larvae.