Hi guys. I’m in the Pilbara in WA. I have one hive out in the bush which I’ve just done a walkaway split on six days ago. I’m new to be keeping and I was just doing some reading on the queens and what I was reading was that a new queen will not mate with drones from her original hive. My hive is out in the bush 10 to 12 kilometres from the nearest town and there are only two hives in that town. My question is will a new queen mate with drones from my original hive or do I need to take that split to that town? I better get a wriggle on so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hi Northy, welcome to the forum. From my understanding, the queen will mate with drones from the same colony because she goes to the local DCA (drone congregation area) in order to get mated. If the only drones flying in the DCA are from her hive, she will mate with them.
If you feel that there will be greater diversity in town, I think that would be a good plan. You still have a few days to organize somewhere to put the split. I think you could safely move the split up to 10 days after doing the split. That gives the scouts enough time to locate the DCA in readiness for the virgin queen when she needs it.
PS. there may not be any managed hives near you however there could be wild hives in hollows of trees, if there are any near you. A good test would be to close your own hives up before sunlight, and see if any bees visit flowers during the morning.
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Thanks Jeff this is a great forum.
My area is pretty remote in the bush. I’ve never even seen a bee here in ten years. Plenty of blow flies though.
My gut says it may be safer to move to the town with the two hives.
Thanks for the info on the mating. That was the thing I was concerned about that she wouldn’t mate with drones which I guess are her brother’s.
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