Can wintering turn a colony aggressive?

[MuswellMetro]

Hi Pete,
unless, as has been postulated, that the sperm from different drones form peer groups, imagine warfare within her majes' spermathica !!

John

exactly, see this reseach taken recently on bees

http://beekeepingtimes.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=289

I discussed this at rothampstead open day last year, each drone sperm is held in seminal fluid mucas that kill the other drones sperm..out right warfare, the drone sperm when it is to be used is only then mixed in the queen smegma which negates the toxic effects of the seminal fluid on other sperm

itermintant drone laying could just be one drone mucas sac of sperm being infertile but other sac being used are fertile...So i agree with Tom, ( our BKA aslo teach it that way as twickenham do)

 

[Hivemaker.]

Male-Male Sperm Competition Negated by Queen Spermathecal Gland Secretions.

http://www.apidologie.org/index.php?option=article&access=doi&doi=10.1051/apido/2009014


http://www.jstor.org/pss/4601449

 

[MuswellMetro]

Male-Male Sperm Competition Negated by Queen Spermathecal Gland Secretions.

http://www.apidologie.org/index.php?option=article&access=doi&doi=10.1051/apido/2009014


http://www.jstor.org/pss/4601449

Hmmmm ,well that another question i will be re asking at the rothampsted open day 22/23 May

not what they said when i asked ( in 2008)


JUST looked at the course notes..they quote the old reference for taber 1955 and kerr 1980...

 

[Hivemaker.]

It states this in the link you put on MM.

 

[MuswellMetro]

It states this in the link you put on MM.

well ,at my age, can i read the small print on a emachine 10" screen...just scanned and assumed...which is always a bad thing..must go to specsavers

 

[Tom Bick]

Well I suppose the teaching at Twickenham may have being a bit out of date and science has moved forward I dont quite know why but I found it all an interesting read and I think I will have to read it all again in time and think of a different conversation to throw in when it goes quiet
Cheers