Mike wrote

> It is my understanding that drones in the yard where the virgins are 
> located will NOT be the drones to mate with her.

I believe there are many examples of queens mating with drones that 
originate in hives from near the mating nuc.  In Western Australia they have 
a bee breeding program which is on an island.  The colonies producing drones 
and the mating nucs are in the same yard.  They get successful matings.

Also in Australia there is a beekeeper who has a unique system of mating. 
He has a cool room where the nucs are housed so the bees do not fly.  He has 
the drone colonies outside with queen excluder (QE) over them and the QE is 
removed late in the afternoon to allow the drones to fly.  The QE is then 
put back on after dark.  A couple of days of this allows the drones to 
establish a drone congregation area.  Then the matings nucs are taken out of 
the cool room, on a train track, late in the afternoon and allowed to fly at 
the same time as the drones.  Both drone colonies and mating nucs are in the 
same yard.  The queens then mate with the selected drones.  There has been 
DNA work done to show that the queens are mating with the selected drones 
and not feral drones who have usually stopped flying at that time of the 
afternoon.

I also remember talking with a Slovenian beekeeper at one Apimondia and he 
told me they use isolated mating areas, high up in altitude, to mate their 
breeding queens.  They put the mating nucs and drone colonies in the same 
yard and have success.

No doubt others may have other examples.

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA 

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