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Subject:
From:
ANTHONY MORGAN <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Tue, 10 Oct 1995 08:58:10 GMT+0100
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> Subject:        Re: Was there a Bee Battle?
 
> Hello  Richard !!
>
> Check if the killed bees are male bees. If thats the fact, everything is
> ok. Every autumn the male bees are killed by the female bees because
> they have done their job for this year. During winter the male bees
> are just eating the honey saved from the girls. The girls don't like
> this and for that reason the poor male bees are killed.
>
> Harald Bodenhofer
 
Hei!
 
Harald is pointing here at what we in Norway refer to as "Drone
Slaughter" which as he rightly says occurs every autumn, often
unoticed by the beekeeper either because the drone numbers are
already low or because the hives have been moved, as mine usually are,
to a remote site to take advantage of a late flow (heather in my
case).
The same "slaughter" can take place earlier in the year if there is a
dramatic chnage in flow/weather conditions whilst the queen is in
full swing and there is a lot of brood to feed -- the bees then eject
all adult drones and empty the brood chamber of all drone brood so
that worker brood has the best survival chance in the changed
conditions (although I've never seen it, it is said that they will
continue the process in extreme cases and begin to throw out worker
brood as well)
Drone sluaghter can be VERY dramatic as it can all be accomplished
in the course of a few hours and the beekeeper can come home from
work, give his hives the normal quick once over and find that one or
more has heaps of dead and dying bees mixed with brood on the ground
below the flight board front edge! The first time I saw this it was a
shock! One's immediate thoughts are poisoning with insecticide or an
attack of some virulent disease -- after the initial panic is over
the fact that they are all drones finally sinks in and one breaths a
sigh of relief!
 
I was able to watch some of the process this year and was somewhat
puzzled. Every few minutes 2/3 three workers hustled a drone out
of the hive entrance and then one of these chivvied the drone to
the edge of the flight board where it fell off and feebly crawled
around in the grass for a few minutes before apparently
expiring. The worker seemed to grapple with the drone and
appeared to be trying to "bite" it on the thorax, meanwhile the
drone was acting drunk/drugged/half dead and offered little or
no resistance. There was no sign incidentally of dismembering or
pulling apart of any of the ejected drones.
 
How is it done...
How can a worker force a much bigger drone to move
in this way?
Why were the drones acting as if they were already half
dead?
 
The bee race here is Apis Mellifera Carnica if that has a bearing on
the details of the behaviour pattern.
 
Answers and opinions would be welcome.
 
Cheers Tony.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony N. Morgan (Tony)                 Fax: +47 73 89 62 86
"Stavshagen"                          E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Midtsandan                               Sor-Trondelag College
7563 MALVIK                              Elec. Eng. Department
Norway                                   7005 TRONDHEIM, Norway
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