Is it prefered that virgin queens mate with young drones vs. older drones ?

[lenny bee]

I was ask this today, an was caught off guard by a female nebee in my class. Even when they inseminate do they use young drones to older ones? Lets not go xxxrated to much.

[Acebird]

How old is a young drone vs. an old drone? They don't live but 6 to 8 months.

[lenny bee]

A drones life span is 40 to 50 days. I guess the question is better put, are drones more or less potent as they get older for mating.?

[squarepeg]

i don't know the answer to your question, but seeing how the sperm can stay alive in the queen for years, it might not matter how old the drone is.

[GLOCK]

So if a queen stops laying it could of been old drones mating with her?.

[Rader Sidetrack]

Even when they inseminate do they use young drones to older ones?

Here's one reference:

http://www.agri.ankara.edu.tr/animal...1311453260.pdf
From that link:

Woyke and Jasinski (1978) demonstrated the effect of drone age on the results of instrumental insemination of queens; as drone age increased, fewer sperm entered the spermathecae of instrumentally inseminated queens and the percentage of queens with a residue of semen in oviducts increased. Locke and Peng (1993) reinforced the conclusion of Woyke and Jasinski (1978) suggesting that sperm viability was adversely affected by advanced drone age. According to Locke and Peng (1993), semen from four and six week old drones had progressively lower sperm viability compared to semen from two week old drones.

There's more at the link.

So, Ace, do you get it now? There is a difference between two weeks old and four weeks old drones.

Its a tough row to hoe out there if you are a drone. Those young punks are always messin' up your game.