Apiary vicinity mating

[Jon]

Do you think that AVM is definitely a trait which can be ascribed to certain strains/races of honey bee or might it be as much (or more) an opportunistic result of larger apiaries rather than, as Cooper implied, something special?

Pete L says that he sees it too with his Buckfast. I am skeptical of a lot of the Beo Cooper writing. He wrote to an agenda the same way as Brother Adam. Two sides of the same coin.

[prakel]

Pete L says that he sees it too with his Buckfast. I am skeptical of a lot of the Beo Cooper writing. He wrote to an agenda the same way as Brother Adam. Two sides of the same coin.

So, assuming you're right and Cooper was wrong on this it's looking like it may well be nothing more than the result of concentrating lots of colonies and/or virgins in a small area.

I am well aware that this statement may be disputed, for it has long been an accepted theory that virgin queens mate with drones high up in the air and at considerable distances from their hives. I do not now think this is really the case, at all events in breeding apiaries where there are large numbers of drones ready to give chase to every virgin when she flies. I think that in such situations the young queens are normally mated within quite a short distance of the hives and usually at no great height.

'Honey Farming' by R.O.B Manley

Then of course there's busybeephillip's hypothesis that there's an absconding component to AVM. Anyone have any further thoughts/observations on this?

[mbc]

Smaller mating units are more likely to cause avm as the virgins are hassled out to mate sooner than they are old be from a more confident unit and so the virgin is less ready for lift off to break the immediate drone atmosphere of her apiary,,,maybe.

[Jon]

I have seen it from a full hive at Minnowburn where we have the association apiary.
I was working with the bees and I saw the mating swarm in the air. The queen landed on a post and the bees settled around her.
There were no apideas there at the time and when I checked there was a colony with an open supersedure cell.
I think this happens from full colonies but is far more obvious when you have 100 apideas sitting together when 20 or 30 queens might take a mating flight on the same day. Hard to miss under these circumstances. I have seen it at 4 different sites including my own garden so it is not some quirky coincidence with a congregation area.