>From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." <[log in to unmask]>
>Date:         Thu, 10 Jul 1997 23:50:33 -0700
>Subject:      No drones
 
>Ever since changing over to plastic foundation and lack of feral hives in
>the vicinity, I have noticed less drones flying in and out of my hives. The
>bees don't appear to make drone cells on plastic foundation.
 
Hi Paul,
 
Drones can drift in from hives miles away so if you don't want drones in
your hives you would need a queen excluder over the entrances.
 
>Perhaps this will help minimize the varroa invasion = no drone brood to
>carry out the life cycle??
 
One of the real early fears about the Vampire mite was that it was going
to kill enough drones so that virgin queens would not get mated fully or
even at all.
 
A UC Davis grad student even wrote a paper on it and how it would
effect his queen bee matings in Greece. Don't have a copy at hand, but
do know that queens are still getting mated with a full load of drone
deposits here and there. Would say sperm but don't want to get into the
gender wars.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone, or to bee more politically correct the OLd Bee or
is it OLd Son Of Bee with not Father. I get confused as some say it was
my Grandfather who was my father, but he died before my Mom was hatched
so there could have been no insectivorous relationship.
 
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ "Where there are fruits & nuts, there are beekeepers"