Question about bee colonies and interbreeding?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Pets and Animals
Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(April 22, 2021 05:39 PM)
I have a general question which has been puzzling me so I'll address it here. A cursory google is no help. I'm an Administrator, goddamn it, not an entomologist!
I know that honey bees mate when the colony's male drones chase the queen bee and then fertilize her eggs. But that is contained within the colony.
Is there any interbreeding between bee colonies?
How is a genetic mix maintained within a population of bees if all breeding is done within the separate colonies?
If colonies remain forever genetically isolated, would they not evolve into separate "breeds" or even species over thousands of years of evolution?
I'm also gonna tag my beekeeper friend if he still lurks:
@TheHellboundHeart
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wanton87 — 4 years ago(April 22, 2021 06:42 PM)
I’m no “Beeologist” PC. However, I think I can partially answer your question. The keywords I think that you want, are:
“When bees swarm”- Usually in spring and early summer, the “collective wisdom” of the colony decides to swarm (for space and reproduction reasons);
- The colony prepares several future queens in so-called “queen cups”. Queen cups are regularly created by worker bees, but the existing (old) queen lays only eggs in it when swarming is imminent. When she does it, she clearly plans to leave and let another queen bee take over the existing hive;
https://bees4life.org/bee-extinction/solutions/sustainable-beekeeping/swarming
I only included the first few stages, for the sake of brevity. But right off, if I had to make a guess. I’m not seeing why bees would need to mix with other bee colonies, when they can swarm? It sounds like due to pheromone identification, bees don’t get along with bees from other colonies. But if your beekeeper friend shows up, they can probably set you straight on all of this.
Mixing bee colonies
https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php?topic=6415.0
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Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(April 22, 2021 07:40 PM)
Okay, interesting. So humans do routinely force different bee colonies to interbreed. So intermarriage is not taboo among bees.
And the chaos of a swarm might get bees from different colonies mixed up in a breeding hysteria.
But the link advises that beekeepers should use more than two colonies. If they try to mix only two colonies, the bees will fight each other to the death. But somehow with three or more colonies their defenses are lowered and it becomes an orgy.
So thanks, that's very elucidating.
However, the "two colony" battle rule makes it sound like even in swarms mixing would be rare.
In nature, without the aid of humans, and with swarms being primarily from one hive, I'm still unsure how bees overcome the restrictions of their colony and interbreed as a species, not just a colony.
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wanton87 — 4 years ago(April 22, 2021 08:08 PM)
However, the "two colony" battle rule makes it sound like even in swarms mixing would be rare.
That’s kinda what I was thinking.
I’ve thought about having a few hives before. Mostly because honey is so expensive now. But I’m scared of bees, ever since getting stung repeatedly, by a hive of yellow jackets when I was a kid.
Incidentally, the very first movie that I ever saw by myself when I was a kid, was The Swarm, lol,
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Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(April 22, 2021 09:01 PM)
I've never been scared of bees because they're clean and a positive force in nature. I'm scared of cockroaches and big buzzing flies because they're just nasty and germ-ridden.
My sister keeps beehives on her farm in New Hampshire. I could ask her too but I'll wait for a family get together. I feel funny calling her at random and asking about the sex lives of bees!
EDIT: I've also been stung by a yellow jacket. Lol. My entire face swelled up.
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