Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Thu, 1 Aug 1996 12:37:20 -0700 |
In-Reply-To: |
|
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
On Thu, 1 Aug 1996, Tom Allen wrote:
> Is there any way to increase the count of drone cells. In my best hive I see
> only a couple of dozen drone cells.
I do not know what the root of the problem is, but a couple of us at the
University have been caging the queens over empty drone cells for about a day
using queen excluding mesh, in order to raise our drone production. It
usually works pretty good. We have found that it is important that a
colony have enough pollen and nectar to accept the drone larvae once they
hatch (and we typically supplement with pollen patties and syrup). For a
while we had a queen that would lay nothing but drone brood, and she was
a good source of drone brood. We kept that colony going for a very long
time by continously supplying it with uncapped worker brood. It proved
to be a lot of work tho, and we eventually requeened that colony. Alida
Janmatt, a scientist in our lab, has more experience with these
techniques.
> Is this enough ?
I don't know. It might be a waste of time to go to all the effort. I
think you need at least a couple of dozen drones in the air at a time to
ensure mating. Since they aggregate at a mating area, i'm not sure how
much over that number needs to be achieved.
Cheers,
Adony
########################################
*** Adony Melathopoulos ****************
***** Center for Pest Management *******
******** Simon Fraser University *******
*********** Burnaby, British Coumbia ***
************** CANADA ******************
########################################
'If men had wings and bore black feathers,
few of them would be clever enough to be crows'
- Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, mid-1800's
e-mail : [log in to unmask]
tel : (604) 291-4163
|
|
|