DCA’s do they exist?

JamezF · Apr 13, 2022

TomH said:
Have a read of the Apiarist blog above, and the radar tracking of individual drones.

I shall do so.

James

rolande · Apr 13, 2022

There's no question that DCAs do exist independently, I'm only questioning whether all the ones 'found' by artificial means actually exist as real entities when the beekeepers are there with their drone attracting kit.

Norton Caff · Apr 13, 2022

That book looks interesting Dani. A bit pricey for my budget!
When I read about DCAs being found with a lure I often wonder if the lure itself is creating the DCA. The following mentions the same thought. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221004673

Yes I know there are many other things involved like how does a totally new population of drones find a DCA, this group is looking into geographical issues to investigate this.

JamezF · Apr 13, 2022

TomH said:
Have a read of the Apiarist blog above, and the radar tracking of individual drones.

An interesting piece, which perhaps points to a potential misapprehension on my part about the way DCAs work. I've always had the "going to the disco" idea in my head and I think that's the way that many people present it, but the article suggests to me that it might well be more like cruising the bars, repeatedly stopping for a drink at one to see if anyone interesting shows up, then moving on to another if nothing's going on.

I've just found out about "drone mandibular pheromone", which I don't recall being mentioned in any of the books I've read, though I think Celia Davis(?) wrote that drone pheromones aren't as widely studied as those of the queen and workers, so perhaps that's why. It strikes me that perhaps DCAs might effectively be chosen by how many drones agree that it's a good place. If one drone turns up and starts producing DMP then another might follow and if he also decides it's good, add his own to the mix thereby increasing the likelihood of others joining them. Or he might not fancy it and move on elsewhere so the pheromone signal stays weak. In some senses perhaps it's not that different from scouts choosing a new home for a swarm.

James

Nige.Coll · Apr 13, 2022

JamezF said:
An interesting piece, which perhaps points to a potential misapprehension on my part about the way DCAs work. I've always had the "going to the disco" idea in my head and I think that's the way that many people present it, but the article suggests to me that it might well be more like cruising the bars, repeatedly stopping for a drink at one to see if anyone interesting shows up, then moving on to another if nothing's going on.

I've just found out about "drone mandibular pheromone", which I don't recall being mentioned in any of the books I've read, though I think Celia Davis(?) wrote that drone pheromones aren't as widely studied as those of the queen and workers, so perhaps that's why. It strikes me that perhaps DCAs might effectively be chosen by how many drones agree that it's a good place. If one drone turns up and starts producing DMP then another might follow and if he also decides it's good, add his own to the mix thereby increasing the likelihood of others joining them. Or he might not fancy it and move on elsewhere so the pheromone signal stays weak. In some senses perhaps it's not that different from scouts choosing a new home for a swarm.

James

The interesting thing about DMP is that by the time the drones leave the hive they are no longer making the pheromone.
They may have a store of it but there is no more being made.
The older the drone the less it has.
Some have created a DCA with a bag of drone heads or caged drones.
If you have say 10,000 drones at a dca all smelling of Brut 33 then it would create quite a smell, even the queen with her limited ability to sense smells should be able to find it, maybe it's Lynx africa nowadays. lol.