Effect of Autumn and Winter Brood Interruption on Queen Survivability and Spring Development of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Colonies with Use of Chmara Isolator

Queen isolation, the prevention of egg laying in autumn and winter, is beneficial in temperate climates. Brood rearing in autumn weakens colonies because feeding the larvae shortens the lives of bees. Workers which emerge during this time do not live until spring; moreover, winter stores are used for their rearing. The Chmara isolator consists of two queen excluders only 1 cm apart, which is why bees do not build a comb in it. The queen is isolated for more than three weeks; the absence of a sealed brood allows for successful control of the Varroa destructor. The aim of the study was to investigate queen mortality and spring development in bee colonies after the use of the Chmara isolator in the autumn and winter. All together, seventy-eight colonies were examined during a three-year period. In half of the colonies, the queens were closed in Chmara isolators for five or six months, from either September or October till March. Three queens died during the winter, one in an isolator and two in colonies without an isolator. Colonies, in which a Chmara isolator was used in autumn and winter, reared significantly more brood in spring compared to colonies without an isolator.