I've been cogitating.  In all that I have read, I get the impression that insemination occurs once during II.  I've also gotten the impression that virgin queens do make more than one mating flight at the beginning of their tenure, causing the demise of ten or more drones during those escapades.  Now to my two questions.

During II, is enough semen used to approximate the volume provided by ten drones?  Has anyone using II instrumentally inseminated one queen more than one time on consecutive days, like three times on three consecutive days?  I've heard that II queens don't last as long as open bred queens.  Could part of the reason be that they simply don't have the volume of semen available that open bred queens do?  Just wondering.

Mike in LA



      

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