Honey Bee Queens, Drones, and Nurse Bees
Earl Hoffman
May I suggest to you that the queen bee is potentially, not the most important bee in the hive
Many behaviors and characteristics are not controlled by the queen, but by the drone genetics
All eggs and sperm carry 16 chromosomes, drones only carry half of the 32 total chromosomes
Each egg contains a unique combination of 50% of the queens genes
The millions of sperm created by each drone, are identical clones of each other
When a virgin queen mates with dozens of drones, hives are comprised of subfamilies
Each subfamily has the same mother, but different fathers
Thus, workers of the same subfamily are only related by 75% of their genes
This amount of related genes may explain some of the cooperation and behaviors found in honey bees
Hygienic behaviors which are controlled by seven or more genes, must come from both drones and queens
Mitochondrial DNA is only passed on by the queens and not the drones
Queens are replaced and superseded by hive bees when queen pheromones and performance is lacking
Drones must be well fed to produce copious amounts of live semen
During nectar and pollen dearth periods, drones may be starved and removed from the hive, year round
Young drones are sexually immature and only contain white mucus with no tan colored semen present
Not all of the semen in a mature drone is viable, above 90% viability is considered normal
Semen that is not viable is broken and damaged, thus it is not alive
Varroa mites reproduce well on drone pupa, thus drones are impacted by viruses vectored by varroa mites
Queens normally fail because of many factors that you, the beekeeper, may or may not have control of
One, queens that mate with only a few drones do not have a full spermatheca and become drone layers
Two, queens may mate with drones that have low semen viability, the drone semen is dead
Three, queens may mate with drones that vector viruses in the sperm
The viruses in the queen spermatheca over time spread to other parts of the queen, resulting in her demise
Synthetic chemicals used to suppress varroa mites in the hive reduce the amount of viable semen in drones
How long should a well mated queen last that is virus free? One, two, three and sometimes four years
In my own humble opinion, there is no perfect queen, chasing after the perfect queen is folly
What I do suggest, is that we need perfect healthy drones, that are virus free and have viable semen
Last may I suggest to you, in my own humble opinion, the young nurse bees are the most important bee
Nurse bees feed the next generation and consume the protein in the pollen
Nurse bees create and feed queen cells
Nurse bees excrete the excess larval food that if shared with their sisters, can then express genes that store energy as vitellogenin
Even if the queen lays 2000 eggs per day, if there is a shortage of pollen or nurse bees, the young bees will conserve protein by consuming the new eggs
If there is a shortage of larval food in the hive, the nurse bees will eat the eggs
Next time you’re in your hive and working the bees, think about the queen, drones and nurse bees in a new light
