Hi Steve & all

> My one worry was that late queens may have difficulty in finding a
> plentiful supply of drones which could compete for her.

> I wonder if the habit of producing late drones
> comes hand in hand with the supercedure trait.

I should say first that I do have prior knowledge of the bees that Steve is
talking about.

First a 'plentiful' supply is not needed in this circumstance as the local
mating that occurs in cold conditions only requires that the queen be
fertilised by whatever is available. This 'new' queen may well only be a
'standby' and will probably lay alongside the old queen. Such laying in
tandem can vary between a few days and a few years, but the colony continues
to exist and may supercede several more times over ten years or so before a
long distance 'outbreeding' mating is possible.

One of the features of the AMM bee is the extreme lateness in a season when
they will supercede, which helps to keep the stock reasonably pure and yes
colonies that exhibit this trait sometimes retain many drones and sometimes
produce late batches of drones. They will also retain a few drones from one
season to the next, but I have no idea how viable these 'old men' are.

http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/matingbehaviour.html
and some of the pages linked from it discuss the cyclic nature of
inbreeding, with occasional outbreeding that this strain of bee depends on
for it's survival.

Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman... G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website
Email: [log in to unmask] or  [log in to unmask]
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman & http://www.dave-cushman.net

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::