> > If honeybee eggs are homozygous at the sex allele, the bee is male and
> the workers eat it.


"Interestingly, the cannibalising of diploid drone offspring by workers
seems to be dependent upon season and colony size. At the end of the season
diploid drones were reared up to the adult stage in the tested nuclei. This
is different to normal sized colonies, where diploid drones are never
reared until hatching. Since diploid drones were not reared in the small
mating nuclei in summer, we argue that the combination of colony size and
season is highly important for our findings."  Polaczec (2000) A new,
simple method for rearing diploid drones in the honeybee (Apis mellifera
L.) .


> >On the other hand, colonies benefit from heterozygosity,
>
I asked a technician who has worked extensively with single-drone
inseminated colonies about this.  He said that some inbred colonies perform
beautifully, some don't.  That said, it certainly appears wise to maintain
at least enough diversity to minimize loss of sex alleles, and to allow for
a breeding population to adapt to environmental changes.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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