Subject: Association of Southern Maryland Beekeepers meeting (U.S.A.)
 
Guest Speaker: Dr. Anita Collins
 
Topic: Drones - Mating
 
One of the main things that I remember Dr. Collins mentioning is that since
we have lost so much of our wild stock, the gene pool has shrunk
drastically.  The bees that we order from package bee people carry the
genes from their area.  When we have these bees and no wild bees, the
matings that take place may be from drones from the queen's own colony.
These produce diploids, which the worker bees can reconize and proceed to
eat.  It was speculated that this may be a reason that the queens seem to
fail or at least not to lay enough eggs to get the hive going strong.
 
It may be a good idea to get bees from different areas or requeen from
different queen
raisers.  Since I carry no credentials in this area I would like to have
feedback.  I think it was nice when we had feral colonies that mated with
our bees, then we had genes from bees that had survived and prospered in
our enviroment, whereever that may have been.
 
What now?
 
billy bee