Do queens ever mate with own drones on mating flights

[charentejohn]

This is an off the wall question, I have missed out this year but intend to have two hives up and running next year.
I then thought about this and, as I believe the queen leaves to avoid inbreeding in the swarm, is it likely they could end up with their own drones.
I am sure in a grand mellee in the sky this is unlikely. Just thought, if I have two hives and the next nearest is 2km away what are the odds of the queen partly ending up with one of her own drones ?

 

[B+.]

This is an off the wall question, I have missed out this year but intend to have two hives up and running next year.
I then thought about this and, as I believe the queen leaves to avoid inbreeding in the swarm, is it likely they could end up with their own drones.
I am sure in a grand mellee in the sky this is unlikely. Just thought, if I have two hives and the next nearest is 2km away what are the odds of the queen partly ending up with one of her own drones ?

Yes.
In theory, the queen travels to distant drone congregation areas (DCAs) and drones stay at nearby ones. This gives them longer in the air waiting for a virgin to fly by but increases the risk of a queen not making it back to her own colony. However, in practice, she is also likely to mate near her own hive.
The multiple mating strategy is supposed to minimize the risk of inbreeding by allowing her to receive sperm from different drones but it can happen that they are all related, particularly if the area is sparsely occupied by other bee colonies

 

[Erichalfbee]

I gather Apiary Vicinity Mating is more common in those bees that fly in bad weather?

 

[B+.]

I gather Apiary Vicinity Mating is more common in those bees that fly in bad weather?

I don't know about that Dani.
IMHO, it's more of a colony density thing. The more hives there are, the more likely I would expect it to be

 

[masterBK]

Drones drift from colony to colony and from apiary to apiary usually without being challenged. Try marking several dozen drones and release them . You will be surprised how many turn up in other hives including those belonging to other people.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Drones drift from colony to colony and from apiary to apiary usually without being challenged. Try marking several dozen drones and release them . You will be surprised how many turn up in other hives including those belonging to other people.

They sure do but according to Koeniger they maximise their flying time by occupying DCAs near their home whilst queens go further; their chance of mating being much greater than that of drones.
Like Paul said.

 

[charentejohn]

Thanks everyone, very interesting.
I will be buying a nuc next year from a supplier near here, too late now I think. Possible but better to wait.
She is trying to increase bee numbers and her swarms are not expensive, also good quality more to the point. She supplies buckfast(ish) calm bees. Her setup is loads of hives, looks like 30+ which is why I asked, I assume the system is. Extract and sell 3-5 frames with mated queen and sell on. Queenless hive makes a new queen and being amongst so many other hives of the same type they will mate quickly with drones from the area. Hence her saying these are like buckfast as they started out that way but some locals will have crept in.
https://s1dabeilles.jimdo.com/ all in french, just translate.

For myself I think I will set up two hives, currently trying to start one, as that is recommended. Just considered if I hit a problem in years to come (as all Warre so hard to get warre nucs) I can just split the good hive but nearest other bees are 2km or so, hence good chance they may interbreed.
I will be buying one from the place above and may try a package in the other hive. Which is why I wondered if they would avoid each other, seems the odds are they would by default but not a real problem.
Constant inbreeding may be a problem but not if left 'free range'.

 

[B+.]

Drones drift from colony to colony and from apiary to apiary usually without being challenged. Try marking several dozen drones and release them . You will be surprised how many turn up in other hives including those belonging to other people.

I marked thousands this year (4 different lines - https://twitter.com/i/status/1130130123561349121 ). MasterBK is right. They'll drift to any hive that's nearby. It's also surprising just how quickly all those drones disappear. The number of marked drones dropped to a handful within 2 weeks. I can't believe they all mated but, maybe, lots of neighbours found marked drones in their hives.

 

[Erichalfbee]

maybe, lots of neighbours found marked drones in their hives.

I used to live near a training apiary. I got multi coloured dabbed drones in my bees all the time.

 

[Firefly]

Maybe we could start writing little friendly messages on the back of our drones: "If by chance this drone should roam..."