I studied a research article regarding production of drone hives. The article stated that segregation of a drone hive by a distance of 100 feet away from adjacent hives, eliminated drone drift. Can a beek please verify if your experience can support this?
I raise queens so naturally drones are just as important to me as queens. I place green drone frame in breeder quality hives and destroy drone brood in non-breeder, support quality hives. However, my drones drift as I placed my hives close together. I thought this drone drift was normal and that was the way bees are. So the research article was intriguing to say the least.
Don?t believe what you read regarding drone distance flights limited to two miles to drone congregations areas whereas queens fly 2.5 miles eliminating inbreeding. This is an old wise tale, think about it, 2 miles verses 2.5 miles, REALLY??? This is not what I see.
I have seen plenty of my own queens bred by drones in the same apiary. How do I know this? I breed a special color of bee.
So this year, my breeder drone hive is going to be moved and time will tell as I plan to mark my drones in the breeder hive. If there is drone drift, marked drones will appear in other hives.
Best to your bees.
Van
Van. Ive done the experiment on drone drift. Method, sit on a lawn chair next to the drone mother hive. Pull a frame and paint all the drones. Pick next frame. Paint all the drones .... over the next 14 days, observe as the painted drones appear in other hives in the yard and in adjacent beeyards up to 1.5 km away.
Conclusion: Drones drift to wherever they want to, especially to where they smell new queens getting ready to fly.
100 feet drift limit - nonsense. debunked many a time.
HP, now that is the reply I was seeking, now that you mention, I have seen drones drift to my queen castle with many virgins that were banked as I waited for queens to mature before releasing for mating flights.
The science article I read was convincing, however, I am experienced enough to know how little I know.
I?ll post a beautiful pic of a queen in a short as a thank you HP. Your gonna luv this queen.
[attachment=0][/attachment]
Hand shake, tip of the ol hat.
Nice Queen Mr Van, does all your queens come this color?
THP
When I saw that post about drone drifting less than 100 feet, I thought it was nonsense.
During BeeFest 2018, we went to BobSim?s house and just as we got to the apiary it looked like a ke a swarm of bees was moving into one of his long hives. When I got close to the hive I realized almost all of the bees were drones. I?m pretty sure that there was a drone congregation area very close to his house and this hive probably had a virgin queen in it. They probably picked this hive to refuel because it was close to the congregation area the queen smelled very sexy.
Jim Altmiller
Quote from: Ben Framed on February 18, 2021, 11:22:10 PM
Nice Queen Mr Van, does all your queens come this color?
Hi Phil. All Cordovans are yellow, most with red legs and red thorax. If you look at the pic, center, one bee below the queen, a worker has a red legs, the other worker legs are yellow, NONE are black. Most of the time, there is more of a Cordovan or deep red color. The yellow workers reflect the fact this queen breed to Cordovan drones therefore workers are yellow Cordovans.
These Cordovan Italians honeybees are incredible gentle, calm bees. When I pick up a frame, the Cordovan bees just walk about the frame without concern, not flighty, not nervous and will ignore a bare hand passed 2 inches over the frames. This test for gentleness is called the hand waive test, which I require for breeder quality status.
Best of the day to all.
Mr. Van, your blonde girls are so pretty. :smile:
Most gorgeous queen I have, is a red head. A deep dark wine burgandy coloured on thorax and abdomen. Did not have a camera that day. If she is still alive in May I hope to get a snapshot. ... I also have no idea which hive she is in at this point.
Otherwise, I certainly confess to a preference for dark queens with deep dark golden stripes. Big butts, hairy legs, and hairy bodys to keep warm through the winter.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210219/a50edc654b22e59041618184c1067a53.jpg)
Quote from: van from Arkansas on February 18, 2021, 07:26:14 PM
How do I know this? I breed a special color of bee.
How Mendelian of you! :cool: :rolleyes:
And they are quite beautiful too! I wish I had the time to breed for gentleness such as this. All of my queens are wild or daughters of wild ones. Good for resistance to VM but not always the most gentle...
Quote from: van from Arkansas on February 19, 2021, 12:33:56 PM
Quote from: Ben Framed on February 18, 2021, 11:22:10 PM
Nice Queen Mr Van, does all your queens come this color?
Hi Phil. All Cordovans are yellow, most with red legs and red thorax. If you look at the pic, center, one bee below the queen, a worker has a red legs, the other worker legs are yellow, NONE are black. Most of the time, there is more of a Cordovan or deep red color. The yellow workers reflect the fact this queen breed to Cordovan drones therefore workers are yellow Cordovans.
These Cordovan Italians honeybees are incredible gentle, calm bees. When I pick up a frame, the Cordovan bees just walk about the frame without concern, not flighty, not nervous and will ignore a bare hand passed 2 inches over the frames. This test for gentleness is called the hand waive test, which I require for breeder quality status.
Best of the day to all.
I like Them! Thanks for posting!
Quote from: TheHoneyPump on February 19, 2021, 01:16:42 PM
Most gorgeous queen I have, is a red head. A deep dark wine burgandy coloured on thorax and abdomen. Did not have a camera that day. If she is still alive in May I hope to get a snapshot. ... I also have no idea which hive she is in at this point.
Otherwise, I certainly confess to a preference for dark queens with deep dark golden stripes. Big butts, hairy legs, and hairy bodys to keep warm through the winter.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210219/a50edc654b22e59041618184c1067a53.jpg)
She is there right in the center1
Yup, there is one there - but not the one I had mentioned. That is actually Ms. Red`s mother there in that picture. In April/May I hope to get a good picture .... if she survived the winter.
On the drone drift experiment. Pull up a chair next to the drone mother hive and get the bingo dabber out. This is what it looks like.