Queen flying distance chit chat !

[wightbees]

What would you more experience people say on this? I have read what I can find and it would seem that she goes out for about 10/20 minutes. Now given her flying speed that's not that far really!
Now drones seem to be the problem here with setting up a mating yard, they fly and park there butt In our hives! So to flood a area would help but also to have my genetics in all surrounded hives of 6 miles, would you think?
I'm on a mission here so any info would be great : )

 

[alldigging]

https://modulenotes.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/module-7-study-notes.pdf

Will have some information - 7.14

 

[Finman]

.
I have read a research, that most queens mate in under 1 km radius.

to fly 6 miles.... Why...

A bee flies 1 km 3 minutes and 3 minutes back.

 

[wightbees]

My thinking is Drones being the problem, they fly 6 miles

 

[Beefriendly]

My thinking is Drones being the problem, they fly 6 miles

Queens will generally fly further than drones to mate with "outside" drones if they can. An evolutionary strategy devised to help prevent inbreeding. Well documented with the experimental evidence and rational in "The Buzz about Bees" by Jurgen Tautz.

Drones need to spend time hanging around in DCA's waiting for a queen and only have fuel for about a 30 minute flight time, most of which is spent in the DCA waiting.
Queens may have same flight time but can multiply mated in minutes so tend to go further. Nothing is 100% though! Sometimes you see drones chasing queens in the same apiary... Possibly a consequence of high densities of hives not being natural.

 

[wightbees]

As my apairy is based on the coastal area of the island I'm trying to work out how best to get the best results for mating Queens. So working in a semi circle ( my apairy in the middle) and the coast being the other half of the circle, I would need to get my genetics in a radius of 6 miles. Would this be correct?

 

[Swarm]

The best way to drone flood an area would be to enlist other beeks. It's far more achievable with a group than as an individual. The hardest part is agreeing on the goal and trust me, it's like banging your head against a wall. You could set up loads of drone factories in the area you mention, from perimeter back to the coast and restrict your mating nucs to a coastal location so as to create a buffer.

 

[wightbees]

I hear you on the agreeing part, this will be my winter project! I did think about making a kind of buffer which in 2 months of trying is going well. I have got 5 sites plus my main site but still work to do!

 

[Finman]

My thinking is Drones being the problem, they fly 6 miles

IT has no meaning in ordinary beekeeping, when I have a drone swarm above my apiary and some drone comes from distance of 6 miles.

Once I had carniolan bees 10 years. The mating apiary was 2 miles from Italian hives. Queen stayed very well as Carniolan colonies..