The Birds & The Bees

[dgoodman]

Hello All,

I'm in need of a little sex education. If my understanding is correct, the queen mates in the air with the drones. The drones then die.

Does this mean that the fertile eggs she lays (1000+ per day I was told) comes as a result of the aforementioned mating. If so, over what period of time does she produce eggs before she must take flight, and mate again. It's hard to imagine such tremendous fertile productivity (as comared to infertile chicken eggs) without regular mating.

I know this is a bit elementary, but the system is nothing like I was taught in school.

Thanks.

David

[Ribster]

As far as I know the queen only mates once and the semen is stored in a sac inside of the queen. This lasts her lifetime. She mates with many drones during the one mating flight.

If you want to see an illustration of how the drones die look at the hive and the honey bee.

She does have to reach sexual maturity before the mating flight, but I don't recall how long it is(it's not long).

[Michael Bush]

>Does this mean that the fertile eggs she lays (1000+ per day I was told) comes as a result of the aforementioned mating.

I don't know about the 1000+ number off the top of my head, but yes. ALL the fertile eggs she lays the rest of her life are from the aforementioned mating.

>If so, over what period of time does she produce eggs before she must take flight, and mate again.

The rest of her life. Typically (if beekepers don't intrude) about three years, but some instances of six or seven years have been noted. Many queens are clipped because they do not need to (nor will them) mate ever again.

>It's hard to imagine such tremendous fertile productivity (as comared to infertile chicken eggs) without regular mating.

Yes it is hard to imagine, at least until you observe it.

>I know this is a bit elementary, but the system is nothing like I was taught in school.

They taught you about bees in school?

[Robert Hawkins]

Dave, one thing I'm not sure got through. The Queen mates in one or more mating flights over a period of days. All of this sperm is stored in a sac called the spermatheca. Some reports have said up to twenty drones can mate with one queen. Then she'll start laying. Lay for 3-5 years and then be supercedured. Because of this we don't need her to fly anymore. So some of us will clip the wings. Unfortunately She thinks she can still swarm and sometimes we lose the queen when she tries to fly out and can't get back.

They taught you about bees in school?

Hawk