The Causes of Supersedure is an ongoing concern of beekeepers and in particular, a focus of my own research. This is a not a new report but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. Excerpts:

In the years 1998 - 2001 the effect of injury to honeybee queens on their egg laying rate was tested in Pulawy. The observation comprised 225 queens that were naturally or instrumentally inseminated in colonies established in Dadant hives.

The majority of queens (122 individuals, 55%) showed injuries to some of their body parts. Of these, 80 queens accounting for 65% of the damaged ones had _mainly arolia injuries_.

Among naturally inseminated queens 67% were non-injured queens. Conversely, in the artificially inseminated group the injured queens accounted for as many as 68% of the total.

Naturally inseminated queens were superseded less frequently (16%) than artificially inseminated queens (31%).

Colonies with non-injured and with injured queens differed but slightly for the number of brood and for the strength as measured during the 1st inspection and in the 3rd decade of June. The differences were not significant.

Although the injuries to the queens did not affect significantly their egg-laying rate but they had an impact on the rate of supersedure.

Honeybee queens are attractive to bees in spite of the injury and upon introduction to the colonies their acceptance is just as good as that of non-injured queens. (Wilde and Loe 1997).

A total of 52 queens were superseded (23% of those monitored). The majority of them (79%) were injured queens.

The majority of queens (51%) were superseded in the second year of their life and 8% were superseded as early as the birth year. Supersedure rate was 31% and 10% in the third and the fourth year, respectively.

The argument that queen injury affected supersedure is backed up by a very high percentage of supersedure of severely damaged queens, damage to antennae being qualified as such.

— Gerula, D., & Bieńkowska, M. (2002). Effect of injury to honeybee queens on egg laying rate and colony strength. Journal of Apicultural Science, 46(1), 75-83.

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