Now that we are in that time of crazy colony growth, it won’t be long until some people start to raise their first queens of the season. My experience and research into weather patterns tells me to hold off until later because the weather can be quite unreliable for mating flights in May. The best … Read more
Honey Bee Polyandry: The Secret to Their Success. Yep, a nice catchy headline, but for most beekeepers the polyandrous nature of honey bees is not much of a secret at all. When a virgin honey bee queen takes her risky mating flight to a drone congregation area she will have sex with many drones (male … Read more
In 2005 some researchers studying matings in the Hope Valley (England) found out some interesting stats on mating distance. Mating distance is the distance between the hive from which the virgin queen flew and the colonies from which the successful drones came. 50% of matings were at a mating distance of up to 2.5km. 90% … Read more
It’s a dog’s life I have always struggled with the idea that there are sub-species of honey bees but not dogs. A chihuahua is a tiny dog, and a great Dane is enormous. There are many differences between these two animals, and yet all dogs are the same species, and there are no defined sub-species. The labelling of … Read more