Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
away from their respective colonies, called drone congregation areas (DCAs), mating
30' to 300' (9.1 to 91.4 m) in the air above open fields or forest clearings.
A virgin queen emits an alluring come-hither pheromone during this flight, inviting
a whole slew of drones to follow. The fastest drone catches her from behind, inspects
her with his legs and antennae, and, if he deems her to be a potential mate, inserts his
reproductive apparatus. The act stuns and seems to paralyze the drone. His body flips
backward, leaving his mating organs still inside the queen. He falls and dies. These or-
gans, called the mating sign , are removed by the workers when the queen returns to her
hive.
Depending on the number of drones available—and, of course, the weather—a queen
may make several mating flights within a few days. She may mate with as many as
twenty drones or as few as five or six. Generally, the more the better, because it in-
creases the amount of sperm available and the genetic diversity of the bees this queen
will produce during her life.
Occasionally the queen will not mate because of an extended period of bad weather.
After five or six days, she will be past mating age, so the colony will raise more queens,
if possible. If not, the colony may go queenless. This situation requires the attention of
a beekeeper or the colony will perish.
When the queen's spermatheca is full, her mating days are over, and she begins life
as a queen. Prior to mating and during her mating flights, queens are not treated like
queens in the hive. They don't begin producing the colony-uniting pheromones until
after mating. They do, however, have some chemical control before mating. They can
inhibit both further queen-cell production and the development of ovaries in workers,
even though the egg-producing organs in her own abdomen—the ovaries and ovari-
oles—aren't completely matured until her mating begins. The queen appears to grow
even larger now as these internal organs expand, but in reality, her abdomen is stretch-
ing to accommodate them.
Queens produce several complex pheromones, or distinct odors or perfumes, which
are perceived by workers. Many of these chemicals are produced in glands located in
the queen's head near the mandibles. According to bee scientists, at least-seventeen
compounds are produced in this volatile mix, often referred to as queen substance.
Several other pheromones are produced by the queen in other glands. As the worker
bees feed and groom the queen, they pick up minute amounts of these chemicals. Then,
as they go about their other duties, they spread the chemicals throughout the hive,
passing along scent cues that inhibit certain behaviors and strengthen the frequency and
intensity of others. The most important message relayed by these chemicals is that there
is a queen present.
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