>
> >I am concerned about the placement of drone production hives in the queen
> mating process.


In large mating yards, I've observed that many if not most of the matings
taking place not far above my head, right in the middle of the nuc
yard--the virgin queen doesn't get very far before she's mobbed by a drone
comet.  I'm not clear how this relates to the drone congregation areas
(DCSs).

Unless you've mapped your DCA's you'd just be guessing.  The most
reasonable strategy would be to flood the mating yard and the surrounding
landscape in all directions with drone source colonies.

In my own case, we mate our queens in strong 4-frame nucs, each chock full
of drones after returning from almond pollination.  I don't place any other
drone colonies at all, but rather flood the landscape with my nuc yards,
roughly a mile apart in all directions.  I haven't had spermatazoa numbers
checked, but our queens typically go strong for two seasons before the
start to fade.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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