Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
I assume that you're refering to drones drifting to other hives (is that what they do or is there an aspect of migration involved?). With regard to the actual mating flights of drones and queens, the Koeniger's research demonstrates that on average the drones stay closer to home than the queens, as described here:

Mating Biology of Honeybees by G. Koeniger (National Honey Show 2014).

https://youtu.be/cI26DLS2CyM
Haven't looked at the video yet (it is a busy few days) but the comments on drones were on drones out on mating flights from a home base and are discussed here:

The flight characteristics of drones in relation to mating
Joseph R. Goelho
Bee Science 1996

'Most studies show that the average length of time spent in a mating flight by a drone is -30 min. (reviewed by Witherell 1971), which represents 81% of the theoretically available time. Drones routinely reach congregation areas 5 km from the natal colony, and occasionally as far as 5 km, while virgin queens probably fly only 2-3 km on mating flights (Ruttner and Ruttner 1966). Yet matings routinely occur between drones and queens whose natal colonies are l2 km apart, and occasionally up to 17 km apart (Taylor, Kinsolver, and Otis 1986). Drones return from mating flights with virtually empty honey crops (Ruttn er 1966, Coelho, unpublished observations). These observations suggest that drones commonly use all of the time and range available to them from their energy stores, perhaps retaining a small amount of fuel as a safety lactor. The energetic strategy of drones appears to be that ol utilizing nearly completely the energy stores on a given flight, returning to the hive, refueling, then taking another flight. In this way as many as eight flights may be taken in one day (Witherell l97l). '