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Queen breeding specialism discussion forum.
 #5803  by Patrick
 28 Feb 2020, 14:00
Thoughtful article by John Whittaker in latest BBKA News discussing the potential lack of drones in managed colonies with fewer feral colonies, leading to possible queen mating issues.

Firstly is there any hard evidence regarding queens being inadequately mated? I always dismissed the idea on the grounds nature often way overproduces male genetics as a relatively low investment to spread genetics widely. But that presumably is only true up to a point.

If the answer is yes and we decide to increase the numbers of flying drones by say using drone foundation in the brood chamber or letting them draw it below super frames, do we actually risk the varroa mite bombs we are warned about?

I understand the science regarding mites preferentially targeting drone larvae and multiplying more effectively in them, but whenever I have uncapped drone brood I cannot honestly say I have seen much evidence of increased varroa. Is the frequent advice to replace combs squeezing out the drone cells?

I know queen breeders have dedicated drone producing colonies, but that is presumably to reduce the “wildcard” element of polyandry rather than make up for a perceived deficit in drones. Is that an option at the hobby scale – it might actually simplify the varroa management issue bearing in mind it is the same period most of us are also bringing in nectar in other colonies? But you also want your drones being raised by your better queens.

If we accept most beekeepers keep their bees in a single location and bees mating strategy tries to avoid inbreeding, would unilateral drone rearing benefit you or only your neighbours?

Questions, questions.. :?
 #5808  by NigelP
 28 Feb 2020, 18:50
I've not noticed any problems. Some years better than others, usually the bad years coincide with bad weather for mating...wind rains etc. My oldest queens will be 4yrs old this season.
Those who seem to be shouting about it never produce any facts or figures to back up their claims.
I thinks they are generally "old" and of the grass was much greener when I was younger genre.
 #5812  by Chrisbarlow
 28 Feb 2020, 19:52
I have not noticed any issues but I am in a colony heavy area. I do put a drone frame in each colony of my colonies though as I want to spread my genetics.
 #5814  by AdamD
 28 Feb 2020, 20:02
If you put drone comb in a colony and you raise loads of drones fairly early in the season, only some of the drones will get varroa in them whereas if you only have a few drone cells, the chances are that the varroa will find them all out and the drones will have a high proportion of varroa in them and consequently they will be more likely to be diseased. Is this right? And then later in the season you will most likely have more varroa than you would otherwise. Maybe after you have finished queen-rearing for the season, you remove the drone comb and therefore remove as many varroa as possible.
A sort of drone rearing and IPM all in one go?
 #5815  by Spike
 28 Feb 2020, 20:11
If you have lots of drones, they will come back with the drones of your neighbours queens in later years.?
 #5818  by MickBBKA
 29 Feb 2020, 02:17
Reading one of Tom Seeleys books recently one of his studies shows queen matings are not dependent on colony / Drone numbers as I understand it. Studying bees in remote isolated locations and those in densely populated areas there was no difference noted in the number of matings in the dna results. Its late but I think that's right ;)