Armchair Drones

[ichbinpaul]

It amazes watching my workers remove dead bees/sticks /leaves etc! the streangth and determination is wonderful, but I have not seen one drone with its larger body doing this! surely they would do it better!? do they do so in your hives? or are they all dell boy's.

 

[VEG]

They just got other things on their mind like food an sex lol

 

[Magwat]

In Welsh drones are known as gwenyn diog (lazy bees)

 

[JohnRoss]

In Irish they are known as leoistí (idlers )

 

[madasafish]

They are drones on a mission: do you want them to be sidetracked?

 

[ichbinpaul]

Hmmmm I have got to have a word with my wife, I dont want distractions myself, lets see if it works! after all she says the workers are smart!.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

A drone has ONLY one function. He is also genetically identical (a haploid clone, I think the term is) to his mother. Her genes do better reproducing through him than through a daughter, who shares half the Q's genes. The workers' genes are also favoured by helping their brothers breed; his offspring share half their genetic makeup, while the offspring of a queen they raise has only a quarter. So the whole hive has a stake in drones' success and a focus on keeping them fit for their purpose. Until the end of the year, where that lot are done with and self-preservation takes over. I THINK this accounts for something extraordinary (in my one year career!) I saw the other day. Great excitement around a hive (not mine, and the hive was v drone heavy for various reasons) and drones were being bullied on the alighting board; obviously the workers had had enough. The Q came out, "surveyed the scene", took a short lap of the apiary and went back in. Almost as if she was protecting her genes.

 

[ichbinpaul]

A drone has ONLY one function. He is also genetically identical (a haploid clone, I think the term is) to his mother. Her genes do better reproducing through him than through a daughter, who shares half the Q's genes. The workers' genes are also favoured by helping their brothers breed; his offspring share half their genetic makeup, while the offspring of a queen they raise has only a quarter. So the whole hive has a stake in drones' success and a focus on keeping them fit for their purpose. Until the end of the year, where that lot are done with and self-preservation takes over. I THINK this accounts for something extraordinary (in my one year career!) I saw the other day. Great excitement around a hive (not mine, and the hive was v drone heavy for various reasons) and drones were being bullied on the alighting board; obviously the workers had had enough. The Q came out, "surveyed the scene", took a short lap of the apiary and went back in. Almost as if she was protecting her genes.

Hmmm that's deep and interesting

 

[OldMech]

That is actually pretty interesting..
Often, when I am sitting on the deck overlooking the pond with my rum and coke.. My son shows up with half a dozen teenage girls... it is usually not long before the queen emerges and begins to protect HER jeans.. err.. Genes......

 

[Little John]

I don't totally buy into this 'Drones only have one function' mantra - as nature is not normally so profligate. But even if this is the case - it doesn't follow that drones sit around the hive all day on their butts doing nowt.

Go find yourself a virgin queen - and take her to the most isolated spot you can find, and let her fly. Chances are that she'll come back mated by a good dozen or so drones. So where did those drones come from ? For sure they didn't get an email advising them: "a virgin will be flying today at 1500 Zulu at the following GPS coordinates ..." !

Each day, providing the weather is reasonable, each hive will put up a fair number of drones which will be flying around 'fishing' - with many just circling around their favourite fishing hole on the off-chance that a virgin might come flying by, with others fancying their chances much further afield. Now 'pre-loading' strategies of that type are very expensive to run in terms of participant numbers: with the vast majority flying around all day with absolutely nothing to show for their efforts.
And so they return home after another fruitless day at their airborne offices for a bite to eat and a few hours in the armchair, before taking off again the following morning on yet another prospective sortie. And the next day, and the day after that ...

Life isn't necessarily one of lazyiness for the drones - it just appears to be that way to those who see it thus.

LJ

 

[Russel]

I don't totally buy into this 'Drones only have one function' mantra - as nature is not normally so profligate. But even if this is the case - it doesn't follow that drones sit around the hive all day on their butts doing nowt.

Go find yourself a virgin queen - and take her to the most isolated spot you can find, and let her fly. Chances are that she'll come back mated by a good dozen or so drones. So where did those drones come from ? For sure they didn't get an email advising them: "a virgin will be flying today at 1500 Zulu at the following GPS coordinates ..." !

Each day, providing the weather is reasonable, each hive will put up a fair number of drones which will be flying around 'fishing' - with many just circling around their favourite fishing hole on the off-chance that a virgin might come flying by, with others fancying their chances much further afield. Now 'pre-loading' strategies of that type are very expensive to run in terms of participant numbers: with the vast majority flying around all day with absolutely nothing to show for their efforts.
And so they return home after another fruitless day at their airborne offices for a bite to eat and a few hours in the armchair, before taking off again the following morning on yet another prospective sortie. And the next day, and the day after that ...

Life isn't necessarily one of lazyiness for the drones - it just appears to be that way to those who see it thus.

LJ

Ikea's " Always find him in kitchens at parties" ad just popped into my head when reading this????????

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

LittleJohn; I'm only participating in amateur "Selfish Gene" stuff. But if the hive is the organism, then an analogy to the OP's question is you don't dig the garden with your reproductive organs; you want to preserve them for another purpose. Which, as you say, is flying in these mysterious mating zones. Where the "selfish gene" theory falls COMPLETELY flat is that drones are accommodated by any hive.

 

[Little John]

Ikea's " Always find him in kitchens at parties" ad just popped into my head when reading this????????

Over my head, I'm afraid - where would one see this ad ?

LJ

 

[ichbinpaul]

I don't totally buy into this 'Drones only have one function' mantra - as nature is not normally so profligate. But even if this is the case - it doesn't follow that drones sit around the hive all day on their butts doing nowt.

Go find yourself a virgin queen - and take her to the most isolated spot you can find, and let her fly. Chances are that she'll come back mated by a good dozen or so drones. So where did those drones come from ? For sure they didn't get an email advising them: "a virgin will be flying today at 1500 Zulu at the following GPS coordinates ..." !

Each day, providing the weather is reasonable, each hive will put up a fair number of drones which will be flying around 'fishing' - with many just circling around their favourite fishing hole on the off-chance that a virgin might come flying by, with others fancying their chances much further afield. Now 'pre-loading' strategies of that type are very expensive to run in terms of participant numbers: with the vast majority flying around all day with absolutely nothing to show for their efforts.
And so they return home after another fruitless day at their airborne offices for a bite to eat and a few hours in the armchair, before taking off again the following morning on yet another prospective sortie. And the next day, and the day after that ...

Life isn't necessarily one of lazyiness for the drones - it just appears to be that way to those who see it thus.

LJ

Also interesting LJ! so their a bit like the fighter pilots of WWII without the same bullets, including getting parts of your fusilage ripped out!?.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Over my head, I'm afraid - where would one see this ad ?

LJ

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gm9rxNxyDU"]Man like Me "You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties" - YouTube[/ame]

 

[stephenpug]

I hope my wife doesn"t read this as i will earn the nickname drone as i don"t do a fat lot around the house lol

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Well round here virgins are a rare as rocking horse poo you would have a long wait for one.

 

[ichbinpaul]

I hope my wife doesn"t read this as i will earn the nickname drone as i don"t do a fat lot around the house lol

Lazy Breeda!

 

[Little John]

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gm9rxNxyDU"]Man like Me

"You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties"

- YouTube

Many thanks for that - appreciated. Very enjoyable to watch.

But all I was really trying to say was that drones have got a really bad image problem, with the majority of people seeing them as lazy bums that sit around the hive all day doing sod all - but they're actually 'out there' each and every day that the weather is reasonable, flying around 'busy, busy, busy' - it's just a very different kind of activity compared with that which the girls are engaged in, and of course having a very different underlying motivation .

 

[alanf]

A drone has ONLY one function. He is also genetically identical (a haploid clone, I think the term is) to his mother. Her genes do better reproducing through him than through a daughter, who shares half the Q's genes. The workers' genes are also favoured by helping their brothers breed; his offspring share half their genetic makeup, while the offspring of a queen they raise has only a quarter. So the whole hive has a stake in drones' success and a focus on keeping them fit for their purpose...

Close, the drone is a haploid offspring of a diploid queen. He carries only half of the mother queen's genes. A worker from the same hive will have a quarter of her genes in common with a drone. In human terms he's as closely related as a step brother, sharing one parent. And yes, that's the basic selfish gene explanation that it's an effective strategy for a worker to help raise many drones which share their mother rather that every worker trying to lay a few of their own eggs.