# mating flights



## bigampm (Feb 23, 2012)

Is there one direction north/south /east/west virgin queens prefer on there mating flights? Into the sun away from the sun, Just wandering


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

In the direction of a DCA on a still sunny day. No particular direction but in my mating yards mating nuc entrances only point East, West and South I never get a good return when they are pointed North.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I would guess the queen will explore her bee environment first on a 
few mating flights. Then she will stumble into the DCAs. Some queens
are MIA while others made it back fine on the same hive entrance facing south.
It is random flying rather than a preference for her flying direction.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Actual studies suggest it's anything but random. Other studies suggest a queen most often takes a single mating flight as long as she was successful. Flying to DCAs seemingly instinctively based on landmarks and topology. She's gone from the hive for what... 20 minutes at the most? She's not zigzagging the countryside looking for a DCA. It's a quick flight there, mating (likely mating in the flyway to/from as well), and back home.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

If you are in an area that's saturated with bee hives like I am a queen probably does not have to search far for the DCA. It's 100 yards south of one of my yards and about 1/4 mile for the other. It's so obvious but the railroad tracks make a nice cut thru the urban trees and I'd bet anything that that's the DCA.

My queen mating success is extremely high. If you draw a 1/2 mile diameter circle around my yard there are no less than 45 bee hives inside it.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

You are lucky to have such a successful mating flights.
I don't even know where is my local DCAs. By random I mean
she will explore one direction each day until she has stumble on the DCA.
Then again how does she know where is the DCA on her first flight? Is there
some kind of an instinct to drive her there like she can smell the drone scent miles away?


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

beepro said:


> she will explore one direction each day until she has stumble on the DCA.



please share the studies or evidence you have to make such a claim.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I have no supporting documentation or studies that can support my claim.
It would be a common sense when the virgin cannot have a successful mating
in one direction to explore the next direction the next day. It would be ignorant
on her part to keep on flying at the same direction everyday when the window of opportunity
is closing everyday. Her goal is to be mated within the 7 days of her mating flights. At least
this is what I have observed in my 4 years of queen rearing. Let's say she has 7 days to get mated that is
her goal. On her first through the fourth days, she can explore the 4 directions--N, S, E and West. On the remaining
3 days she can get mated depending on the DCAs she has found. I don't think I raise the stupid queens so when
she found a DCA source she will go there until her mating flights has completed. In my normal queen mating flights 
they are laying on the 9 or 10 days after the 7 days of their mating flights. To get the right documentation you
have to glue a nano-cam on her thorax during her mating flights to track the direction and such. I have no 
documentation only my deduction of how a virgin would fly on the number of hives from other beekeepers 
that are close to my apiary. If anybody has a study or some form of a documentation I would be interested to
read too. I have none at the moment!


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

Dr Gerry Loper did this with radar in the 90s.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Dups!


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

So what did the Doc found out.
Is it a random pattern or a set patter for her mating flights?


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

beepro said:


> So what did the Doc found out.
> Is it a random pattern or a set patter for her mating flights?


Random pattern? :scratch:


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Here is a study involving locations of DCAs (Drone Congregation Areas) and landscape characteristics and associated apiary locations in Puerto Rico.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3635128/:)

Based on that study, there is a strong preference for DCAs located towards the _south_.

.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Random = flying aimlessly trying to find her DCA while
wasting precious mating time without a plan of when she
will get mated. With a preference she will
aim say the North for example to find her DCAs.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3635128/


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## rniles (Oct 10, 2012)

Very interesting information on DCAs.


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## Scpossum (May 4, 2014)

My theory is the forager girls tell her where the bachlelor's pad is located. 

Not a lifelong study of bees, but I would guess since so little is left to chance in a bee's life, there is some form of communication/instinctive knowlege of where the DCA is located. I have read they take a one day flight and rarely two.

Great article.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Doesn't sound too random to me... Using landmarks and topography they seem to arrive at the places year after year. 

I'll admit to having not read the entire article yet, will have to read the rest later.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

In my experience she will take more than one mating flights.
A few times to explore her bee environment and then the real deal.
She will mate and fatten up until she no longer can fly while preparing
for the laying. So she only has a short window of opportunity to fill up the juice
on her multiple flights.


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## al-kul (Sep 13, 2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgtDhNeg9_Y
if it is so important which way?
I think that it would know whether drones are in the air


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Welcome to Bee Source, al-kul!

I don't think it is that important which direction she take for her
mating flights. What is important though is that she's able to find her
way home afterward. If she's lost then no matter how far or which way she will
be a MIA virgin.


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