To say that the drone is haploid is not to say  that inbreeding does not
occur in bees. 

     I'm not sure about the mechanism, but there is some way that queens
avoid drones from her own line. I'm not sure if that applies only to drones
from only her own hive or to all the drones in the apiary. In other words,
is it merely the hive smell or personal pheromones that is the determinant.
In a situation where all colonies in the bee yard had been queened from the
same queen mother, the girl would have nowhere to go except to get kinky
with a relative. The inbreeding would occur  within this tryst.( Daughter to
brother). 

     Quality and duration of queens has been declining. Perhaps this is a
factor.

 

Dick

 

 

>Sure, it's another species ...but don't the same dangers apply to
honeybees?

 

Not sure whether there is such a thing as an "inbred" drone bee, since they
are haploid.


 

-- 
Randy Oliver

Grass Valley, CA

www.ScientificBeekeeping.com


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