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Author Topic: How long do drones live?  (Read 7352 times)

Offline Intheswamp

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How long do drones live?
« on: December 31, 2011, 12:33:18 pm »
I've seen life expectancy quoted for queens and workers, but I can't say I've seen one for drones.  How long do drones live?

If you have an undesirable queen, pinch her, and immediately requeen with a cell or virgin from your own yard there will be drones with the original queen's genes flying that could possibly mate with the virgin.  Any queens banked or in a nuc would be suspect to be carrying the old queen's genes and it seems problematical, to me, to keep a colony queenless for a long enough period of time for those drones to die off. 

Is there a way to prevent the old queen's genes from being passed to the new queen other than artificial insemination?

Did any of that make sense?

Ed
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Offline SEEYA

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2011, 07:02:00 pm »
>> to keep a colony queenless for a long enough period of time for those drones to die off.

From what I've read: The hive winds up with 'laying workers', who produce only drones. These drones are still related to the 'old queen'.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2011, 10:08:25 pm »
It is unlikely, but not impossible, that the new queen will breed with her drones.  The queen usually flies further than the drones and there is recent evidence that she prefers other drones and may actually tend to reject related drones.
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Offline Jim134

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2011, 10:38:09 pm »
This  book will help you out a lot
http://www.wicwas.com/index.html
Connor: Bee Sex Essentials


 By Dr. Larry Connors Just my $0.02


   BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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Offline BjornBee

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2012, 08:11:25 am »
How long do drones live?

About three seconds after having it chopped off!  :-D


I think the evidence is that queens fly about as far as they need to mate. In feral colonies, that might be a good distance to a DCA with drones not her own.

But in bee yards with multiple hives, The best solution to take away any chances problems with drones, is to have two yards with different genetics. then you take a graft or cells from one yard and have them breed in the other.

Most of the problems if you were to even experience them to begin with, are when a beekeeper just sits with a few hives, and has no resources to really breed queens. So you either raise them at a buddies place, move in eggs or grafts from another location, etc.

I really think the backyard beekeeper raising one or two queens will not have much problems. You are not flooding the area with your genetics, the feral population and genetics pool is probably vast enough to support healthy queens, and much is to do about nothing.

Most of these problems are created by the so-called "queen producer" who has the same genetics in every hive (Like after dumping in 20 packages in 20 hives all at the same location), then raising queens while grafting from one of the queens. He is not doing anyone service by this model and will produce the weakest queens.

Raising one or two queens...I would not sweat it. Raising 20 queens with two or three cycles per year and selling these off as "quality" queens....then do the right thing and do what is needed for success. Use different yards with selected genetics, use drone saturation colonies, etc.
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Offline tedlemay

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2012, 10:47:54 pm »
So, how long do drones live?

Offline Tommyt

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2012, 06:29:45 pm »
"Not everything found on the internet is accurate"
Abraham Lincoln

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2012, 07:00:14 pm »
So, how long do drones live?





Thanks, Tommy.  I had been wondering about that.

Ed
www.beeweather.com 
American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

"Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they wont come to yours." - Yogi Berra

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2012, 08:49:57 pm »
Drones live about as long as field bees and they work about as hard at their job.  If they are successful, as Bjorn points out, they live much less.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline tedlemay

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2012, 09:26:55 pm »
Thanks for that info Michael. Without doing a lot of reading i just figured they had a longer lifespan.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2012, 11:33:30 pm »
I have seen estimates of four to five weeks for drones and I've seen estimates of seven to eight weeks for drones.  I'm sure it's somewhere between those and that would be about the same as workers.  I've seen them winter and they last as long as the workers then too...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline Jim134

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Re: How long do drones live?
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2012, 11:57:32 pm »
Connor: Bee Sex Essentials


 By Dr. Larry Connors Just my $0.02


   BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)


In the book Dr. Connors say about 1 week in the hive and about 4 weeks in the field


   BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
 
"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may  remember,involve me and I'll understand"
        Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."
 John F. Kennedy
Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

 

anything