Drones

[TOBY-3652]

I have got a hive that i put a new queen in ten days ago. This queen was laying. I looked today and no queen and no eggs. There was 2 sealed q cells and 2 unsealed queen cells.i intend leaving only one . The hive is in a garden on its own about a mile and a half from my main bees and about the same from someone elses. When the queen hatches will she find drones to mate with.. Hope someone can answer yhis question.. Or would it be easier to buy a laying queen??

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes she will find drones to mate with for certain,of course adding a new mated queen gets the ball rolling faster, if introduced successfully.

 

[huntsman666]

The drones will find her.

 

[huntsman666]

I see that there's a 'thumbs down' icon against this thread, can someone explain this?

Is it because I said the drones will find her? If so and whoever put it there wants to understand why, I'll explain.

 

[TOBY-3652]

I put the thumbs down when i asked the question because i wasnt sure if the drones would find her been 1 and half mile away from any other bees

 

[huntsman666]

Toby, what happens is; the drones congregate waiting for a queen to fly by within scenting distance. Kinda like they're waiting for 'the scent of a woman.' However she is economic and doesn't fly over fields but along hedgerows or similar. Nobody has yet reported seeing drones congregating in the middle of a wheat field.

A virgin queen on her nuptial flight can fly a distance over six miles hoping she attracts the drones. The lucky or unlucky drones to catch her do the business and die. A bit rough on the ol' drones or what?

Drones have about ten times the sensors in their antennae than queens who have the fewest of the three castes.

So think of it as a driver breaking the speed limit, they don't find the police, the police will find them.

Hope your queen knows all this, laugh.

BTW; she can also mate with your drones. However drones from different colonies will normally be in the same congregation area. Spreads the gene pool.