Mating 2015

[Jon]

Drones are at peak fertility between 15-30 days from emergence.
It is important to have a continuous supply all summer.
All my colonies at mating sites have at least 2 drone combs in them.
Queens need to be laying in drone comb from the end of March if you want any early mated queens as it will be more than 5 weeks until they are fertile.

[busybeephilip]

Drones are at peak fertility between 15-30 days from emergence.
It is important to have a continuous supply all summer.
All my colonies at mating sites have at least 2 drone combs in them.
Queens need to be laying in drone comb from the end of March if you want any early mated queens as it will be more than 5 weeks until they are fertile.

It is also important that colonies dedicated to rearing drones are well fed with thin syrup and given a pollen supplement so that you do infact have a strong population of healthy drones. Some persons simply use a super filled with drone foundation on top of the brood box for the queen to lay in - you get plenty of drones this way.

[The Drone Ranger]

I am starting to realise my drones although very plentiful might in fact be fat lazy bees incapable of mid air hanky panky

[Feckless Drone]

Have you found sometimes an extra long wait heralds a drone layer ?

DR - I have not kept notes to comment accurately on that. I rarely get drone layers, only 1 this year. What generally happens is that the Q disappears or fails to emerge (confession) when I dislodge the pupae.
I did spot a virgin Q yesterday in a mating nuc, she should be flying this week. Fingers crossed.

[The Drone Ranger]

I guess that's what happened to my queen cells when I stuck the cages on early

[busybeephilip]

Must say, I got quiet a few dud queens this year, some from black q cell virus and a lot more than usual were lost and many turned out to be drone layers from the start and some turned into drone layers after mating (post worker laying). i'm putting it done to the very variable weather we have had this summer. I marked my virgins after hatching for the first time so that they could be found quickly in the mini nucs, don't think that there is any correlation between drone layers/ bad matings and marking virgins but cant explain the higher than usual level of queens lost. Just hope they will be producing worker brood come spring.

[The Drone Ranger]

https://youtu.be/3ZwH6IM6aLw
A small sample of what has been going on at the old homestead
Drone laying

[Jon]

Is that a 2015 queen or an older one laying that pattern?

[The Drone Ranger]

Is that a 2015 queen or an older one laying that pattern?

Hi Jon
That is a 2015 queen
on the 15/6 she was a virgin and that was her laying pattern on the 30/7

[mbc]

Must say, I got quiet a few dud queens this year, some from black q cell virus and a lot more than usual were lost and many turned out to be drone layers from the start and some turned into drone layers after mating (post worker laying). i'm putting it done to the very variable weather we have had this summer. I marked my virgins after hatching for the first time so that they could be found quickly in the mini nucs, don't think that there is any correlation between drone layers/ bad matings and marking virgins but cant explain the higher than usual level of queens lost. Just hope they will be producing worker brood come spring.

Any sign of bqcv and I was taught to discontinue using that colony for queen raising. Virus issues probably account for many of the problems which crop up without us ever realising there is an underlying problem.
Wally Shaw mentioned an interesting theory in one of his lectures at the bibba do las t year, which was that more queens mated in the second half of the season fail due to drones having a higher virus load later on and the possibility that they may pass something on to queens via an std, I expect the chances of picking up an std are quite high if you exchange fluid with a dozen or so partners at each romp.