I suppose at this time of the year 'within apiary' and 'within strain' matings may be more likely with drones falling near the hives. Is it possible that drones being harassed and excluded from the hives normally at this time of the year suffer some sort of stress eversion of their sexual organs before death?
Alvearium
Mark Winston's very well researched book has a very graphic description (and drawings) of the mating process, saying at one point:
'At this point the drone becomes paralysed and flips backwards .... '
but later he says:
' ... the ejaculation separates the drone from the queen, and he dies within minutes or hours of mating.'
So that doesn't really clarify Bs&Hs' question on whether the damaged drones can find their way back to the hive or not.
G.
This particular Santa Claus?Originally Posted by Jimbo
drone eversion...jpg
just have to keep my eyes peeled then.... probably next year before this happens again ( if at all)
One wee question - were you seeing this during the swarming season or during the drone kicking-out season? Your recent observations seem like the latter, but what about last year?
I found some dead drones outside my hives today, still fresh, and had a good look. They were all still complete and popped very nicely, showing off their reproductive organs.
- Another party trick for our beekeeping sessions.
Doris
Hi Doris,
As well as being a good party trick it will also tell you if your drones are mature enough before you start any bee breeding early in the season.
It is also good to watch the males faces in any bee group cringe when you do it.
Jimbo
I,ve checked last years photographs and they seem to have been taken on the 16th June . so still swarming time up here on the tops of Lancashire. I have a lovely picture in my head of people all round the country crawling round their hives and looking for dead drones....... and popping them! ....that one is new to me !
In that case - and with Doris' failure to find popped ones in the Orkney drone autumn slaughter - then I'm mildly optimistic that you may have revealed that drones can make it back to their colony after a botched or maybe even a successful attempt at mating. If something that dramatic happened to me while I was out and about (!) then I'd be tempted to try and make it home if I could. Best not anthropomorphise though.
G.
My money is on the hives being located near to the drone mating area so the bees being able to make it back, where as most of us have hives a distance away from from the drone mating areas and the drones not making it back. To test this theory if somebody knows of a drone mating area and sited a hive near to it they could then observe if the drones make it home.
Jimbo
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