In response to:

>     How high [above ground] are these assemblies?  I'm wondering how to spot
> one.  I thought they'd be too high to see from the ground.

   Chris Slade replied:

>Low enough to be audible but too high to be visible - say tree top height.
>However, at Gormanston this year on an open hurley pitch on a cool day the
>drones were most attracted to the lure on Carl Showler's fishing rod when he
>lowered it to about shoulder height.  So it all depends.

   In Santa Barbara, before Varroa wiped out most of the feral colonies, we
had certain drone aggregation sites of great dependability.  One was just
above a hilltop, the others were near canyon bottoms at the base of
mountain ranges.  Each day between 2 and 4 p.m. in March and April I could
take my entomology class to the appropriate spot, where they could hear the
hum of drones above.  Then I would take out my slingshot and lob stones
nearly straight up into the air so that the students could watch the drones
pursue the falling stone.

                                                Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106  [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]

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*
*    "However broad-minded one may be, he is always to some extent
*  the slave of his education and of his past."
*
*                           Emile Duclaux (1896; 1920 translation)
*
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