Drone Pen

[Ben Framed]

I have seen Quail pen for raising quail along with other type of pens for raising different types of animals and birds. I am working my way up to a question. Our friends in certain parts America  and our friends south of us in the southern  hemisphere, are plagued with Africanized bees. From what I understand, it is almost impossible  to raise pure Italian or other type honeybees in these locations. Is this true? From what I understand and have read, the virgin queen's from these locations, which even are from bought queens from Italian decent, make their mating flight, almost always mate with  africanized drones. Is this correct? Now the question; if a person in such a location, wished to raise the pure Italian bees, why would it not be possible to simply build a screened in mating flight pen which would not allow wild bees inside or inside bees to escape? If the pen was large enough, stocked with the proper drones, would this work for a virgin queen to make a confined mating flight? Thanks, Phillip Hall

[BeeMaster2]

Queens do not mate in an enclosed space. They fly to a specific type of landscape and attract a drone comet and then fly vertical straight up so that only the strongest drones can catch them and mate.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Queens do not mate in an enclosed space. They fly to a specific type of landscape and attract a drone comet and then fly vertical straight up so that only the strongest drones can catch them and mate.
Jim

Thanks Jim, Now I know 😁  I would suppose the only other way that a breeder in such an area would be able to raise the pure queens would be by the artificial  insemination method ?

[kanga]

😁  I would suppose the only other way that a breeder in such an area would be able to raise the pure queens would be by the artificial  insemination method ?

A commercial queen bee breeder (Joe Horner) from Australia has developed a system of 'control mating' and the following links explain & evaluate his method.

https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/101/3/334/836803
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPW1tmBjoQ0

Don't know how it would work with AHB.
Kev

[Oldbeavo]

Some queen breeders will have mating sites that are isolated and have been used by them for some times generations, so the bees that have swarmed into the bush are still Italians and so there is a domination of their bees at the DCA's.
One local queen breeder uses a fairly steep valley to mate in so bees tend to move up and down the valley forming a natural enclosure.

[bemused]

I think artificial insemination is probably a more elegant solution to your requirements

[Oldbeavo]

https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/101/3/334/836803
Try this link and read the method of JO Horner and the video will make more sense. Also the train will make sense.
He mates 240 queens at once, quicker than insemination.

[BeeMaster2]

Pretty interesting but that is a very expensive setup with 6 different tracks in 6 different directions. I suspect they were about a mile or two each.
Jim

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Mr. Ben, in one of my bee books there is a picture of an unsuccessful drone pen/cage.  Looking at the picture I would say the cage is about 18 feet in height and 14 feet in width made of window screen mesh. 

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

I read about Horner.  He releases his bees after the local drones have returned to their hives which greatly increases the chances of his drones breeding his queens.  The fella is sold out of his queens, the demand outway his supply.

[Oldbeavo]

Each hive has 4 queen compartments, there are 3 tracks, with 20 boxes by 4 compartments = 240
The boxes look about 10 yards apart so track would be about 200yds each
Note in the video all the orientating features ( big yellow flower etc).

[Ben Framed]

Y'all have posted some great information!! Thanks  sawdstmkr,  kanga good video!,  oldbeavo good stuff! , bemused a good thought, Mr van thanks for your input about the failed pen, and oldbevo.  Thanks to all for taking the time and energy to respond and look up & post these interesting videos and arrivals. God Bless each of you!! Sincerely, Phillip Hall