Pam Hunter - Sex life of honeybee

**Rosie** · 03-10-2014, 05:10 PM

I have a theory about this which Robert Paxton thought was unlikely but it was clear that the the tests have not be done to prove or disprove it. I wonder if the conditions in the spermatheca will need to match the sperm in some way in order to nurture it for the 5 years that are necessary to span the queen's life. If that's the case it could be that exotic sperm might not last the whole 5 years. Hence as the queen gets older the workers become purer. That might explain the changing nature of a colony, which is probably something we have all seen. Even if all the different types of sperm match the spermatheca equally it could also be that long lived races have evolved long-lived sperm. I can't see any reason why there should not be a difference in this respect between sub-species.

**mbc** · 03-10-2014, 06:29 PM

Very little of our body of knowledge comes from research done in our conditions with our native bees. In an ideal world funding would be available for such specialisation, but in the meantime we have to be grateful for what work there is available.
I would hazard that some things we are told are actually a bit different for our circumstances, off the top of my head I would say average time for virgins to mate(certainly by my observations) and possibly number of drones mated with would be quite a bit different for amm in West Wales than the accepted figures published for aml bees in dfferent climates. Your (Rosie) theory on sperm storage may yet hold water.

**Jon** · 03-10-2014, 07:36 PM

Some sources will tell you that a virgin has only 21 days to mate but I have had the odd queen start to lay 40+ days from emergence.

Mind you, there are not many queens living for 5 years now. 2 -3 years would be much more likely for mine.
There seems to be a lot of supersedure. Starting to sound like Roger Patterson!
Next up, Ley lines!

**Jon** · 03-10-2014, 07:37 PM

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**mbc** · 03-10-2014, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by Jon

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**gavin** · 03-10-2014, 09:43 PM

I can see you guys really bonded at Llangollen

**kevboab** · 03-10-2014, 10:36 PM

Ha.... Ley lines, brings me on to my question from last night. Having spent a thoroughly enjoyable second evening with Pam hearing how bees perceive the world I had the opportunity to ask Pam what her theory was on how drones manage to find congregation areas which are seemingly used year after year given that they are thrown out to die and the information cannot be passed on to the next generation of drones. One of our members mentioned the possibility of ley lines which set Pam off on her own thoughts. It was a priceless moment. People, bonkers and weird were included in her response. Anyway, Pam nor I are none the wiser on how these areas are found by the drones year after year. Can anyone help us in our quest ?