Air Traffic Control

[Ed M.]

Not much of a bee photo but It caught my eye so I thought I'd share. Today looked like we needed some air traffic control.

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Must have taken 20 shots of this drone and didn't see the mite until I loaded it in the computer

http://www.fototime.com/8FB3D0F547E96C0/standard.jpg" border=0>

[Horns Pure Honey]

Great pics, I really like the first one, looks like something in a movie, bye :D

[Jay]

Now are you rolling that drone to collect for instrumental insemination?

[Ed M.]

Now are you rolling that drone to collect for instrumental insemination?

Unfortunately I was doing it just for the photos, but that's how it's done for real. I'm not quite ready equipment wise to do insemination, but one day it will come.

[leominsterbeeman]

I'm not quite ready equipment wise to do insemination, but one day it will come.

Now that's funny!

[beemaster]

These are GREAT PICS - I love the depth and focus - and you totally NAILED the brightness, which is tough with white hives and darker backgrouds - GREAT GREAT JOB!!!!

[Kris^]

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or . . . what's wrong with that drone's head???

-- Kris

[Robo]

It's the "other" end.

[Bee Boy]

Dude nice pics!!!! Did you use a digital camera?

[Kris^]

It's the "other" end.

A-ha!  Well, that certainly was not a thing I'd ever seen before -- at least, not on bees!    

-- Kris

[beemaster]

I imagine that (like with any guy) if Drones knew THAT would fall off when mating,  it would be pretty hard to find volunteers.

Of course at that point, I think we would welcome falling from the sky to our death   :idea:

[Ed M.]

Dude nice pics!!!! Did you use a digital camera?

Yes they were all shot with a Sony DSC-F717 In Macro Mode

The first one I locked the exposure and the focus on the white hive and then rotated the camera to where the bees were and used the onboard flash to lighten the bees and darken the background. Unfortunately there is no manual focus in macro mode on this camera and you have to use auto focus when you're in macro mode so the focus was just a guess, but it worked out pretty well.

[Ed M.]

It's the "other" end.

A-ha!  Well, that certainly was not a thing I'd ever seen before -- at least, not on bees!    

-- Kris

The actual bridge between the drone and the queen is his extended male organ apparatus (endophallus) shown in the second photo, which is tightly plugged into the sting chamber of the receptive female.  His explosive ejaculation ruptures his male organ apparatus and propels semen into the queen's oviduct.  In addition to the forceful ejaculation of semen, the terminal bulb at the tip of the endophallus remains in the queen’s female organ until the next drone finds and mates with her. The last plug is thought to be brought back to the hive as a sign of the breeding

[tejas]

Ed,

I saved the first picture to my computer and applied it as my computers background picture and it looks great.

[eivindm]

Ed,

I saved the first picture to my computer and applied it as my computers background picture and it looks great.

I'm sorry to inform that Ed passed away on April 12, 2005. His wife posted this message in an other thread where she informs us about this. May he rest in peace.