Does the duration of the pre oviposition period of honeybee queens affect the honey production of colonies?

On the basis of data from The Breeding Evaluation Centre in Germany, data of the pre oviposition period (POP) of honey bee queens were collected from 3648 colonies over 19 years at 25 mating stations and from 64 bee breeders. Generally, the pre oviposition period of the tested queens, lasted from 6 to 34 days with an average of 15.8 days. About 80.1% started egg laying 8 to 18 days after emergence. The length of POP varied significantly among years and months and among different queen bee breeders. Both, the type of mating and the mating location significantly affected POP. Artificially inseminated queens had the significant highest value (17.6 days) of POP in comparison with naturally mated queens at island- (15.4 days) and land-mating (14.9 days) stations. The relationship between POP and honey production of bee colonies was not found to be significant. Thus, the pre oviposition period is highly affected by environmental factors but provides no information concerning the potential of the queens.