The theory you may hear…
- “Male bees are kicked out of the hive in winter because there’s not enough resources in the hive to support the useless males”
- “Males leave the hive for mating and aren’t allowed back in to the hive”
It could be true, but should be questioned…
- There’s no research on it,
- No one seems to have seen males trying to re-enter the hive and being rejected,
- Male bees roosting on branches would have to be tested to see if they were from hives they’re near,
- Do males normally leave the colony to mate then return?
- Are males only ejected from the hive in winter? Males can congregate all year round but people say they’re ejected from the colony in winter because there’s not enough resources for them. Why would they be ejected in summer then?
- Do we over analyse everything in life? 🙂
Research by Franciso Garcia
Francisco found that male bees leave the colony once they reach sexual maturity and it’s their mission to find a virgin queen from another colony to mate with. Francisco checked DNA from colonies in surrounding areas and found the male bee can travel anywhere from a few hundred metres up to 20km to mate. The congregations in your yard may actually consist of hundreds of unrelated colonies. It’s thought that the male bees are attracted by pheromones from the virgin queen and could also be attracted to congregations of other males. *info from The Cross Pollinator Newsletter June 2021 – https://www.anba.org.au/?s=male+stingless
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.843156/full
What are your observations?
If you have any information or research on this let me know and I can add it to this page.
