(Re <http://interconnected.org/home/2003_08_03_archive.shtml#106015638331798363>)

From: Mark Ward <>
To: matt@
Subject: Anarchist bees
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 09:59:04 +0100 


Matt,
Just read the anarchist bees entry on your weblog and I'm not sure that it's
correct. The part that is troubling me is where you say: "There's a
particular genetic mutation in honeybees that makes the drones fertile". As
I understand it, as a newish beekeeper, drones are always fertile. As males
they are the ones that pass on their sperm to the queen so she can lay
fertile eggs which grow into female workers. I think confusion may have
crept in because oddly among honeybees, unfertilised eggs grow into drones.
Sometimes when a queen runs out of sperm, because she is old or struggled to
find enough drones to mate with on her nuptial flight, she will produce
nothing but unfertilised eggs and create a hive full of useless drones.
Honeybee workers, female, have their reproductive system suppressed by a
variety of means, but in some hives where the colony is unhappy with the
queen, they start laying to, among other things, express their disquiet. In
drone hives and colonies full of laying workers anarchy does break out and
they can become susceptible to disease or robbing.
Apologies for the long message. Hope I've read your blog piece correctly.
Regards
Mark