Hi  all

Peter said...

> So are you saying that without a drone congregation area queens will not
> mate properly?

If the queen concerned is of a race or strain that uses drone assembly as
it's main mating strategy, then their mating performance and mating
frequency will be compromised if it is in an area where AVM is the norm and
drone assembly only occurs once every few years.

This in one of the main reasons that the purity of breed of the Irish
strains of AMM is so high, because the strains brought in from foreign parts
could not survive more than a few seasons and those hybrids that did develop
did not fare much better...

Irish queen mating conditions are wet and cool, worse even than mainland UK,
although those in the south of the UK will see weather conditions that
favour drone assembly more often than in the north, hence on the south coast
of Britain many exotic strains of bee can be bred.

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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