where could I find more info on the mating flight?

[FordGuy]

questions like how long at at a time does she fly away, does she return every evening, how many days minimum/maximum does mating flight last, does she ever overnight on a branch like workers sometimes do, does she ever fail to find her original hive of origin, out of 100 virgins that leave, how many come back to lay? thanks.

[Michael Bush]

>questions like how long at at a time does she fly away

In my observation 30 minutes to an hour.

> does she return every evening

She returns within about an hour. She is never gone overnight that I've ever observed.

> how many days minimum/maximum does mating flight last

In my observtion from about one to three.

> does she ever overnight on a branch like workers sometimes do

Not that I've ever heard of and not that I've ever observed. I've watched the observation hive rear quite a number of queens and never seen her gone overnight. She'll leave somewhere around noon and be back in a hour or so.

> does she ever fail to find her original hive of origin

Queens have a very good sense of orientation. She does orientation flights before taking off to mate. But yes, if there are hives right next to each other, particularly mating nucs, she sometimes goes in the wrong one. But I bet she's seldom off by more than one.

> out of 100 virgins that leave, how many come back to lay?

I've heard various numbers. It seems to change by time of year and I've never taken good enough notes to say what happens when, I just know some batches are about 95 percent and some are only about 60 percent. I'm not sure why. It could be that there are more dragonflys, or swallows or the weather. I don't know.

Here's some of Huber's observations:

"This result induced me to suspect that the females could not be fecundated in the interior of the hive, and that it was necessary for them to leave it for receiving the approaches of the male. To ascertain the fact was easy by a direct experiment; and as the point is important, I shall relate in detail what was done by my secretary and myself on the 29. June 1788.

"Aware, that in summer the males usually leave the hive at the warmest time of the day, it was natural for me to conclude that if the queens were also obliged to go out for impregnation, instinct; would induce them to do so at the same time as the males.

"At eleven in the forenoon, we placed ourselves opposite a hive containing an unimpregnated queen five days old. The sun had shone from his rising; the air was very warm, and the males began to leave the hives. We then enlarged the entrance of that which we wished to observe, and paid great attention to the bees that entered and departed. The males appeared, and immediately took flight. Soon afterwards, the young queen appeared at the entrance; at first she did not fly, but brushed her belly with her hind legs, and traversed the board a little; neither workers nor males paid any attention to her. At last, she took flight. When several feet from the hive, she returned, and approached it as if to examine the place of her departure, perhaps judging this precaution necessary to recognize it; she then flew away, describing horizontal circles twelve or fifteen feet above the earth. We contracted the entrance-of the hive that she might not return unobserved, and placed ourselves in the centre of the circles described in her flight, the more easily to follow her and observe all her motions. But she did not remain long in a situation favourable for us, and rapidly rose out of sight. We resumed our place before the hive; and in seven minutes, the young queen returned to the entrance of a habitation which she had left for the first time. Having found no external appearance of fecundation, we allowed her to enter. In a quarter of an hour she re-appeared; and, after brushing herself as before, took flight. Then returning to examine the hive, she rose so high that we soon lost sight of her. Her second absence was much longer than the first; twenty-seven minutes elapsed before she came back. We then found her in a state very different from that in which she was after her first excursion. The sexual organs were distended by a white substance, thick and hard, very much resembling the fluid in the vessels of the male, completely familiar to it indeed in colour and consistence.

"But more evidence than mere resemblance was requisite to establish that the female had returned with the prolific fluid of the males. We allowed this queen to enter the hive, and confined her there. In two days, we found her belly swollen; and she had already laid near an hundred eggs in the worker's cells.

"To confirm our discovery, we made several other experiments, and with the same success. I shall continue to transcribe my journal

"On the second of July, the weather being very fine, numbers of males left the hives. We set at liberty an unimpregnated young queen, eleven days old, whose hive had always been deprived of males. Having quickly left the hive, she returned to examine it, and then rose out of sight. In a few minutes, she returned without any marks of impregnation. In a quarter of an hour, she departed again, but her flight was so rapid that we could scarcely follow her a moment. This absence continued thirty minutes. On returning, the last ring of the body was open, and the sexual organs full of the whitish substance already mentioned. She was then replaced in the hive from which all the males were excluded. In two days, we found her impregnated." -- François Huber 13th August 1789.

http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm