Author Topic: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity  (Read 1691 times)

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Offline Jen

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How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« on: February 18, 2019, 03:04:27 pm »
I did this myself last year, it's pretty cool!

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Offline tecumseh

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2019, 06:45:25 am »
another method taught to us by Sue Cobey..

It is called the buzz test...    find drones on frames in a hive and gently place your finger on the drone's thorax pressing it against the comb.  first immature drones will feel soft and pliable while the sexually mature drones exoskeleton will be tough and  secondly the sexually mature drones will 'buzz' and the non sexually mature one will just kind of set there and do nothing.

Of course once you find drones flying they are quickly approaching being sexually mature... so you can also lean a queen excluder up against the hives front entry and when you see lots of drones on the excluder (check about 2 pm) the drones are getting close to the age here they are capable of mating. 
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Offline Jen

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2019, 12:30:44 pm »
Fascinating! And you don't have to kill the poor innocent guy that's just hanging around to do his job  ;D

Last year we were talking about this at our county bee meeting as well as our fb group.

Tech, you and Apis now the precarious springs we get here in upper northern Calif. It can take weeks for a queen to get fully mated, if that can happen at all these day with backyard queening. During our springtime, some of our queens finish up their mating window with a nice rotund abdomen, and some queens come back not much bigger than the bees themselves. I pretty much assume that the smaller queens will eventually get superceded.

Thank you for the extra info, we here in Calif need all the help we can get  :) 8)


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Offline tecumseh

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2019, 05:21:24 am »
You are welcome Jen.  We will have Sue back this May to do some II work... and I always pick up a few tips from the queen of queens.  And I am glad to pass them on...

Offline apisbees

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2019, 04:25:26 pm »
when you decide to start to raise queens, you should see a fair few drowns in the hive. It takes about 45 days for a drone to mature from egg to being ready for mating. The drones emerge on day 24 so buy the time the queen is ready for her mating flight it will be the drones that were already emerged that will be the mature drones that are the proper development.
Keep in mind that you do not want the drones from the hive that the queen is being raised from to be the drone mating with her. so if you have one hive that is ahead of the rest and has lots of drones over other hives in the area, you would not want to raise the queen out of that hive.
 
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Offline Jen

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2019, 02:16:05 pm »
Hi Apis, when a queen mates with drones from her own hive, will that be strong potential for the offspring to be a mean colony?
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Offline tecumseh

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2019, 05:56:23 pm »
it is called inbreeding Jen.  one common characteristic is mean bees and it give you a larger chance that the sex alleles will line up to be lethal < you can see this last characteristic as a spotty brood pattern where by the nurse bees remove the brood < I am not certain if this happens at the egg stage or young larvae stage.

Offline Jen

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2019, 08:38:17 pm »
Yep, I do know about the inbreeding thing. And in the past I have had two hives that were just so darn mean, different years, that I tried to sulfur kill them, and that only worked part way. So I got out the shop vac and sucked them all up. What an awful experience mean hives are!

Anyway, back to drones.

So I have 4 hives this year, all of them in my backyard. If there arent any other drones in the area, the chances are that she will mate with some of her drone stock plus drones from the other 3 hives.... right?
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Offline tedh

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2019, 09:49:58 pm »
Hey Jen!  My understanding is that drones "hive hop".  Not all of the drones in a hive are necessarily "your" bees.  I also have it in mind that the queen will travel a good distance for mating.  But then, I could be wrong on both counts 8).  Ted
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Offline Jen

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Re: How To Test Drones For Sexual Maturity
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2019, 11:06:40 pm »
Hi back Ted :) We are getting more city hives now that we have a county bee club. It's my learning that queens can travel as far as 3-5 miles for mating, and do try and not mate from their own hive drones.
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