Hi Frank & all

> It is possible that the regular and approved product use of Apistan has
> affected the viable sperm of the drones that the queens are mating with.

While it is possible that there is an element of this in the explanation, it
is certainly not the whole story. The problematic mating has been going on
in UK for almost 20 years and we have only been using treatments for varroa
since 1992 at the longest and in my area since 1995.

The only contaminants that I can think of that pre-date varroa was tobacco
smoke that was used by some of us in attempting to detect varroa and
possibly Folbex VA that was sometimes used as acarine mite control.

Since varroa and the treatments for it hit UK, there has been a massive
increase in the number of 'dry' drones. There are always a few dry drones,
but in some cases it is becoming hard to find a 'wet' one... I was present
on one occasion when about 300 drones were popped and all were dry.

Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman... G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website
Email: [log in to unmask] or  [log in to unmask]
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman & http://www.dave-cushman.net

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