# Can a queen mate within the hive? Queen excluder on entrance, high drone population



## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Unfortunately, no she cannot... mating takes place in flight and within certain short distances from the hives, drones simply do not pay any attention to the queens that pass by... the sexual stimulation actually begins in what is known as a dca (drone congregation area) which is where the drones will hang around waiting on a queen to pass by and when one does, they all race after her (think local bar, lol)... new queens can take several mating flights in a day and the process can continue until she feels that she is ready...


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

I know of at least one instance where a business put up a sign that was the tallest object around for several miles. From then on, they had hundreds of drones dropping into their parking lot. You guessed it, the drones established a congregation area around that sign.

DarJones


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Can a queen mate within the hive? 

No.

http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm#letter1


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## 100 td (Apr 3, 2011)

Thanks folks,
As a newbee, I have to ask many questions, even after reading and reading and reading so many posts and threads and online books etc. etc.
I thought I saw someone post a picture of a queen mating with a drone outside the entrance to the hive. I could be wrong (most likely), but I would have thought it to be on this forum or the beekeeping forum, the two that I read the most. I have searched both but can't find the pic or reference. I'm a newbee, but I'm not afraid to ask and bee told, but I can't know without asking, so I ask for your patience with me. I learn something new every day, hopefully more things than I forget every day!


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

Gregor Mendel, father of modern day genetics, thought queens could mate with drones inside the hive. He based his early genetics work on it. It failed. He didn't understand that mating occurred outside the hive.

Lucky for us he switched to pea plants, and changed genetics forever.


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## Guest (Jan 22, 2012)

From what I recall reading, the drone has a kind of trap door that opens when he flies fast, exposing his sex organs. Then, of course, his junk breaks off in her and he dies. She returns to the hive where workers groom her and remove the drone's organ from her. That's why I assume that if she mates multiple times, she must take more than one mating flight, right? If she has to have the drone's "man handle" removed each time......


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

Sometimes the drone's "man handle" will fall out naturally, enabling her to mate multiple times in one flight.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2012)

Specialkayme said:


> Sometimes....


I can see that. But I'd be curious, if it doesn't fall out and has to be removed back at the house, does she head back out for another go? I've read that she can mate 15 or 20 times, and/or until her sperm storage thing (I forget the official name of it) is full........That would seem to mean multiple flights........


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Queens can mate up to 45 times, I have heard. The sperm is temporarily stored in a an area before the queens' spermatheca. The sperm is acquired and gets mixed up and as much of it as the spermatheca can hold goes into the spermatheca. The spermatheca changes color during this process, if I recall correctly from clear in appearance to pearly white once full. All the rest of the sperm is expelled from the queens' body.


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## deejaycee (Apr 30, 2008)

dr.buzz said:


> ... if it doesn't fall out and has to be removed back at the house, does she head back out for another go?


She can mate with multiple drones in a single flight. Once one drone has finished, the next one on board dislodges the previous one's penis and goes to work himself, and so on.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>She returns to the hive where workers groom her and remove the drone's organ from her. That's why I assume that if she mates multiple times, she must take more than one mating flight, right? 

The next drone removes it. The workers remove the last one. But sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't take more than one mating flight.


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