In my region, domesticated bees does not exist except at me, I am thinking about rearing some new queens to extend my apiary. I have only one hive,
How will the young queen mate?
and also Will there be any inbreeding from my drones, if she bred with them?
and what are the problems caused by inbreeding?
You can't really domesticate bees so your virgin queens will mate with feral bees in the area.
If there are no feral bees in your area and your queen mates with her brothers then 1/2 of the workers eggs will be removed by the bees. It will not be a productive hive.
Jim
Thank you, What will be the case, If I have another hive?, Will it breed specifically from the second hive or random drones?
Is the queen from the two hives related?
Jim where did you get that information? I have never heard or read about that.
From college classes that I attended. Also I am pretty sure it is in Honey Bee Biology.
When I get home I will look it up in HBB.
Jim
the best thing to do is try to find suppliers in differnt locations and purchase in gruops with other beeks to get some from each area. that will help the group to keep the genitics spread out.
john
If you rear your new queens in nucs, then just take your nucs to a different area or apiary to mate, and so improve your genetic diversity.
Unless your hive is outstanding then I would buy in mated queens for your first increase in apiary size.