I've long been curious as to whether the presence of drones is necessary
for a colony to initiate swarming. The rationale is that if a colony
swarmed and there were no drones in the local area that there would be none
to mate with the queen. A colony might "judge" whether there were drones
available based upon whether it had mature drones itself. This may also be
a reason why drones drift from hive to hive.
Does anyone know of any research in which the investigator manipulated
drone presence to prevent swarming?
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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