I know of a good drone congregating area close to my hives ( just tested by David Cramp using a drone with a virgin tied underneath)
 but I believe that queens don't visit the nearest congregation area, partly to reduce inbreeding.

At EAS we learn where to place drone colonies - 2km away in a square around the mating area.

Last autumn (fall) I placed a lot of nucs close( 200 yards)  to it and had less than a 50% successful matings. The rest were queenless.  
This spring I place 16 nuc within 3/4 of a mile of the area on another apiary site and got 75% mating.  The weather in both cases was 
reasonable with days at 20 degree C. (We do get a lot of wind but these two sites are reasonably sheltered). 

My question is how far away should I place the mating nucs to capitalise on this congregation area.

Frank Lindsay
Wellington 
New Zealand

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