From: Peter L Borst >>Again, it is hard to imagine how a queen could select males, based upon any criterion since they are pursuing her.
Why the assumption that the queen is being selective? Could it not be that a related queen is in fact less attractive to a closely related drone, taking the edge of his desire to pursue? In terms of any scent based criteria it would seem to me that the drone is better able to receive that signal than the queen.
Given drones' ability to hive-hop pretty much at will, even if drones appear to chase a queen from her hive of origin, there's no saying those drones were bred in that hive.
regards
Deanna Corbett
Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
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