Drone Congregation Areas.

[Greengage]

I posted in STD of honeybeees that I read somewhere that drones do not travel that far to mate, some do it within the vicinity of their own apiary and not as high as people think could this be another myth of drones flying miles to mate. I started a different thread on the subject hope its ok.

Prakel said : "Sounds like you're getting your myths and current scientific knowledge back to front ".
That said, drones do tend to travel to closer DCAs while queens head to DCAs at a greater distance from their nest; all to do with energy/refueling requirements. He also gave a link to Mating Biology of Honeybees: Gudrun Koeniger (National Honey Show video) Unfortunatly it would not open.
Calluna says he heard of Drones located up to 70km away from apiary in Denmark which may be unusual and not the norm. There are lots of different topics on drone DCA also described as Leks (Wonder if thats a scottish term) on the net with lots of papers refered to as well.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00890709/document
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00040-004-0763-z#
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25085360?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
My question and curiousity is why would either queens or drones travel great distances if there were a lot of aperies in the vicinity. if drones congregate in the same areas year after year what attracts them there if they are like swallows or cuckoos what is it that attracts them if it is not something inbred then could you create artificial DCA saving you queens long flights and encourageing drones from other aperies into your DCA.

[prakel]

Mating Biology of Honeybees: Gudrun Koeniger (National Honey Show video) Unfortunatly it would not open.

Just checked, opens fine for me, but I did have a similar problem when I linked to the McGreggor/USDA pollination manual (online version). I think that Gavin (who's cleverer than me) fixed that one...

In the meantime, you can just google 'Gudrun Koeniger/national honey show/mating biology of honeybees.... I'm sure you'll find the video.

The Koeniger's work (there are two who've basically spent their adult lives researching the subject) is very important.

[Greengage]

Cheers ill try that later.

[prakel]

Hopefully Gavin will do some clever stuff with my original link too :)

In the meantime, it's hard to go wrong with Larry Connor:

Mating and the Benefits of Polyandry: Why honey bee colonies put their Queen at a huge risk with multiple mating behaviour. ABJ 02/2013.
http://www.wicwas.com/sites/default/files/articles/American_Bee_Journal/ABJ2013-02.pdf

[mbc]

Drones don't necessarily fly far on mating flights but they can travel far during their lifetimes as during the breeding season they are welcome in any colony, in effect this means in a few short flights they can leapfrog vast distances.

[Greengage]

At our local meeting last night a number of members have lost their queens, two dont know how another believes it was MAQS as the queen was found lying on ground outside hive, at the moment they siad they could not locate mated queens and they are feeding so in my humble opinion it looks like they could loose the colony over winter. Anyway back to my DCA post. I am planning on rearing some queens next season to help pay for this hobby, there are a number of Aperies in my location and my queen is not related to any of the hives as she came from 60km away, so hopefully my new queens will mate with drones from these local aperies. if Im thinking right this should be no problem but to increase genetic diversity following on from this I am thinking of giving the new queens after my first batch (Confidant arent I) a head start by moving newly emerged queens to an out apiary in an apedia until they are mated before moving backto build up Nucs for sale or just sell on the queens. were talking very small scale here.

[prakel]

Some recent aditions to the online DCA resources courtesy of Vita Europe:

In Search of a mate (Part 1)
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/in-search-of-a-mate-drone-congregation-areas-first-outing/

Drone Congregation Areas (Part 2)
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/drone-congregation-areas-part-2/

Another Drone Congregation Area
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/another-drone-congregation-area-part-3/

Video of Life in a Drone Congregation Area
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/video-of-life-in-a-drone-congregation-area/

Do Drones assemble above prehistoric sites?
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/do-drones-assemble-on-prehistoric-sites/

Drone Goal
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/drone-goal/

Rediscovering the first Drone Congregation Area
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/rediscovering-the-first-recorded-drone-congregation-area/

In search of Drone Congregation Area SatNav
http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/in-search-of-a-drone-congregation-area-satnav/

[Kate Atchley]

... He (Prakel) also gave a link to Mating Biology of Honeybees: Gudrun Koeniger (National Honey Show video) Unfortunatly it would not open.

It opened fine for me: see Mating Biology of Honeybees:
https://youtu.be/cI26DLS2CyM

Thanks Prakel: will revisit Koeniger this evening ... and explore the big long list above!

[Duncan]

There is a lot we don't know and of course insects live in a very different world from us.

I'm a very keen lepidopterist and have studied the biology of various African butterflies - mostly Charaxes. The males of many species congregate on hilltops waiting for females to pass by.

Charaxes gallagheri, a very local butterfly found in scattered localities in Zimbabwe is especially interesting and worthy of comment. The males select particular twigs/branches on certain trees. The resident males are extremely aggressive towards any other males trying to move in on the "territory", which is patrolled throughout the first half of the day, in mid-afternoon the females fly through these territories and the males chase them, a brief courtship usually follows preceding copulation in some secluded leafy spot. Once the resident male has departed, another soon takes his place and the procedure is repeated until late afternoon.

Now here is the interesting part: Charaxes gallagheri is strictly double brooded with a spring and autumn brood - no adults around between the brood periods. They use the same twigs/branches year after year and as it is impossible to be a learned behaviour, it is logical to accept that all this is programmed into the species. Bees are the same - just responding to signals received.

[gavin]

I think that Gavin (who's cleverer than me) fixed that one...


Lol! Currently enjoying Jon's hospitality. He's out in the garden hopefully peering into Apideas at the moment. Either I have magical powers to heal links when I'm not at a laptop or maybe the internet just gets a bit wobbly sometimes and then fixes itself.

[Greengage]

Great it opened I look forward to watching it later tks.

[prakel]

Duncan, thanks for opening an interesting window into yet another world.

[Greengage]

Great video, Seems drones do not travel to far and queens go a bit further,

[The Drone Ranger]

At our local meeting last night a number of members have lost their queens, two dont know how another believes it was MAQS as the queen was found lying on ground outside hive, at the moment they siad they could not locate mated queens and they are feeding so in my humble opinion it looks like they could loose the colony over winter. Anyway back to my DCA post. I am planning on rearing some queens next season to help pay for this hobby, there are a number of Aperies in my location and my queen is not related to any of the hives as she came from 60km away, so hopefully my new queens will mate with drones from these local aperies. if Im thinking right this should be no problem but to increase genetic diversity following on from this I am thinking of giving the new queens after my first batch (Confidant arent I) a head start by moving newly emerged queens to an out apiary in an apedia until they are mated before moving backto build up Nucs for sale or just sell on the queens. were talking very small scale here.

Hi Greengage
The folk who have lost queens should post here and elsewhere asking for queens
The commercial suppliers may have stopped deliveries now (not sure)
Jon may well have some for sale

Mainly though a lot of people might be combining weaker colonies and that leaves a spare queen who would otherwise be squished
They might not have the most desirable genetics but they can save a colony from being lost