Drones....

[daoniesidhe]

.. not the sharpest tools in the shed.

[Neils]

My chisels are.

[The Drone Ranger]

Drones are me best favourites

they never stings and they tells me nearly everything about the hive

Plus they sound great

[Jon]

And they make a silly noise and kind of headbutt you during colony inspections.
Futile behaviour when you know they are stingless.
It comes across as a cry for help rather than defence of the colony.
They should be marketed like hamsters or border terriers as ideal household pets.
Probably could be trained to use a litter tray.

But you are right, a colony producing copious quantities of drones, in the correct sized cells of course, is certainly feeling good about itself.

[EmsE]

I brought home a frame of drone brood (from the DL Queens colony) where some were beginning to emerge. It was great for the children to watch the drones work their way out and to be able to handle them, particularly my 4-year old boy who is too young to go bee keeping. It really made his day! You never know, it may encourage them to become glove free bee-keepers when they grow up unlike their Mum :o.

[The Drone Ranger]

I brought home a frame of drone brood (from the DL Queens colony) where some were beginning to emerge. It was great for the children to watch the drones work their way out and to be able to handle them, particularly my 4-year old boy who is too young to go bee keeping. It really made his day! You never know, it may encourage them to become glove free bee-keepers when they grow up unlike their Mum :o.

Great stuff :)

I have become a bit more interested in drones lately because I wonder if they might not be a better guide to the queen's type than the chopping wings off workers method.
The genetecists on the forum and there are a couple might be able to say whether we should only see yellow or black drones
Possibly yellow/black drones exist I can't remember seeing any
I have seen plenty drones where they have thin bands of grey hair and are otherwise black
This makes me wonder if genetically black is dominant
If the gene for black is present is the gene for bands (if it exists) hidden or supressed
IF there is possible partial dominance can you get brown or tan coloured drones
Could drones tell us much more than they do at the moment ?

[The Drone Ranger]

Course Dominant is the wrong word as it has a specific meaning in genetics and as Gavin already told me the Drone only has one copy of each gene therefore dominance in the sense doesn't apply
Also Rosie has already opened a thread on this subject so I am off piste (no not down the pub)

[gavin]

We're all allowed the odd duff post. It even happens to me (often drink is involved).

[Jon]

You might not even be entirely wrong DR as I think colour is controlled by more than one gene.
Gavin, you should dig out the info. re. colouration in drones and workers and give us all chapter and verse in layman's terms.

[gavin]

Apparently .... (after doing what scientific experts tend to do nowadays, Googling!) ....

- cross Amm x Aml and you get a yellow queen

- she will give a 1:1 ratio of black to yellow drones

So Italian yellow is dominant to Amm black and much of the effect is due to one gene. However there is a lot of variation within each class, so other genes have an effect too.

Drones and workers can do different things and different races do different things. For example Am adansonii has yellow workers and dark drones.

There are also maternal, effects too: make crosses the other way round and you get subtly different results.

[Jon]

So Italian yellow is dominant to Amm black and much of the effect is due to one gene. However there is a lot of variation within each class, so other genes have an effect too.

That squares with my own observations as I see yellow worker offspring in the F1 from my black queens yet the drones they produce are always black. If black were dominant, you should always have black workers in the F1 assuming the queens you start with are pure.

[The Drone Ranger]

Gavin
is that one queen producing both yellow and black drones I've never noticed that I will be paying closer attention in future

Jon that is something I have never noticed either I will look more carefully :)

[Jon]

Roger Patterson has a slide he shows from a colony which produces 50/50 yellow or black drones.

[gavin]

Yes Jon, in your case:

yy queen (black) x Y drone gives Yy (yellow) worker offspring but y (black) drone offspring.

A daughter queen (Yy) could do the thing DL mentioned, give 50:50 yellow and black drone offspring

[Rosie]

Gavin

Is it really that simple? I never see a coloured drone in my own colonies and yet I have queens which vary from jet black to almost all yellow (abdomens). I caught a yellow swarm last week and yesterday found a yellow drone and yellow virgin in it so it seems someone around here is keeping quiet about his yellow bees. I thought everyone had signed up to our local bee policy so it was a bit of a disappointment to me.

Rosie

[gavin]

No, far from it. That was the very simplified version. The long version made my head hurt!

There are lots of modifying genes that affect the shade, and there are genes that give colour in drones but not females and t'other way. A gene from African stock gives dark drones despite the yellow workers. I wonder if Buckfast do that as they have some African parentage. But there is a big effect gene that does the above.

The Buckfast drones I remembers (from an abberation a couple of years ago!) were very gingery.

I'm afraid that there are probably always a few beekeepers dotted about that do their own thing and never make themselves known.