From: "allen dick" mixing between yards was *much* less than one would
> expect."

I have always wondered how virgin queens find drone asemblies so quickly.
It is one thing for the drones - there are many of them and they have
nothing else to do.  But is one reason for there being so many drones per
colony that the drones take it in shifts to wait for the virgin to fly and
then lead her to the assembly area?  If so, the drones from her own hive
would have an advantage - they would know both when the virgin flew and
which assembly she would go to.  This would increase chances of mating with
drones from the same yard .  Cross mating would not be eliminated wholly -
so genetic mixing would still happen.
Any observations to support this wild surmise?

Robin Dartington

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