Hi Steve & all > My one worry was that late queens may have difficulty in finding a > plentiful supply of drones which could compete for her. > I wonder if the habit of producing late drones > comes hand in hand with the supercedure trait. I should say first that I do have prior knowledge of the bees that Steve is talking about. First a 'plentiful' supply is not needed in this circumstance as the local mating that occurs in cold conditions only requires that the queen be fertilised by whatever is available. This 'new' queen may well only be a 'standby' and will probably lay alongside the old queen. Such laying in tandem can vary between a few days and a few years, but the colony continues to exist and may supercede several more times over ten years or so before a long distance 'outbreeding' mating is possible. One of the features of the AMM bee is the extreme lateness in a season when they will supercede, which helps to keep the stock reasonably pure and yes colonies that exhibit this trait sometimes retain many drones and sometimes produce late batches of drones. They will also retain a few drones from one season to the next, but I have no idea how viable these 'old men' are. http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/matingbehaviour.html and some of the pages linked from it discuss the cyclic nature of inbreeding, with occasional outbreeding that this strain of bee depends on for it's survival. 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 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::