Hi Peter & all

> On Friday I visited Micheál Mac Giolla Coda of the
> Galtee Bee Breeders and there were large numbers
> of drones in his hives.

I reckon that the reason for this, is...

The bees concerned have been selected and bred from AMM colonies that
exhibit queenright supersedure, which obviously requires drones to be
available late in the season (sometimes very late).

This behaviour has a self propagating effect, in that mainly the colonies
that retain late drones are of this type and that the AMM mating strategy
and high mating frequency can counter the inbreeding risks that can occur
when the drones are kept within the colonies that are raising the
supersedure queens.

Also the ability of AMM to mate locally (AVM), without any drone
congregation, allows the mating to occur at temperatures that are much lower
than for other races of bee.

The Galtee website
http://www.gbbg.net/
gives some insight into the methods that have been used to breed this Galtee
strain
http://www.gbbg.net/longevity.html
gives information on the link between supersedure and longevity.

AVM is described on...
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/avm.html


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Fall Back M/c, Build 6.02 (stable)

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