Bonjour a tous !        On 02 Sep 1993 13:07:28 +0000  I asked ...
 
< A friend of mine, rearing queens, asked me :
 
< Is it credible that honeybee queens reared in very small nucs, without
< any drone, would fly shorter distances to mate that queens reared in
< established hives (with a lot of drones) ?
 
Adam Finkelstein answer  ...    02 Sep 1993 07:38:20 -0500
 
> Your queen flight question is interesting. Please let me know what you hear.
 
and Kerry Clark ...             02 Sep 1993 08:50:00 -0700
 
> I don't know of any study that compared the 2 specific conditions you
> mention, but Dr. Tibor Szabo, Agric. Cda. Research Stn Beaverlodge
> Alberta (now at Guelph Univ. Ontario) did 2 years of tests to
> determine the maximum distance that queens (from small, droneless
> nucs) would fly to connect with drones. The nucs were distributed in a
> forest with no honey bees, at varying distances from normal apiaries.
 
> Perhaps someone can quote the reference to the published article, or
> other details, but my recollection is that queens within 10 km were
> usually well inseminated, then there was a zone of less complete
> mating, to a further 10 km.  One queen was well mated at about 20 km.
 
Seems the problem is at the other end ... The reason was ...    06 Sep 93
 
For two years, this friend changed all the queenbees of the neighboring
apiaries within a radius of 2 miles.  There is probably no wild colony.
There is a lot of choosed drones at the mating place.
 
They had 240 nucs (max. 5 half Dadant frames) and observed that the
outspring of queens emerged in nucs looks more homogeneous than this
of queens emerged in established colonies located, however, in the
same mating station.
 
 
Regards                         JMVD
 
 
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 Jean-Marie Van Dyck             email : bitnet    jmvandyck@bnandp51
 B.P. 102                               internet   [log in to unmask]
 B-5000    NAMUR (Belgium)              School Med. - Physiol. Chem. dept
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