Apiary vicinity mating

[fatshark]

If it continues like this the queen will have to mate inside the hive ...

[busybeephilip]

If it continues like this the queen will have to mate inside the hive ...

Within hive mating (WHM) - perhaps a cape bee thing which occurs very rarely in Amm where there has been a genetic mix in the distant past or mutation due to environmental chemicals - boggled

[Jon]

I spoke to Tom Seeley about Apiary Vicinity Mating and he suggested that Dave Tarpy would be the guy to contact about it.

[busybeephilip]

sounds like Seeley does not support the theory of AVM or just does not know

I cant find anything credable that has been peer reviewed to support AVM, Coopers book (1968) records conflicting visual observations from beekeepers but nothing concrete, infact one observation describes a grounded queen being pursued by drones, any account I have heard relates to a small clump of bees on a post or the ground that are mostly if not all workers. Typical absconding behaviour, (bees leave their hive, cluster then move off later if the weather or starvation does not kill them , the same as normal swarming)

Clearly a lot more detailed observation and supporting evidence is needed to show that mating actually does take place in aimless type swarms circling just yards a few feet off the ground 3-4 meters front of an apidea, nuc box or hive. A video showing the moment of mating, circling of drones should be possible to produce since the event is totally local yet this has never been shown.