Causes of Repeated Mating Flights by Queen Honeybees

SUMMARYObservations were made on 2434 flights of 628 queens. Of 303 once-inseminated queens left alive for further observations, 63 % flew again and 38 % mated on a second flight; 8 % of the queens flew yet again, and 6% were inseminated a third time. Sperms in the spermatheca were counted in 207 queens returning from a mating flight or departing on the next one.The average number of sperms in the spermatheca of all queens that started to lay was 5.340 million; of those that mated on one flight only 5.057 million; of those mated on two and three flights 5.979 and 6.975 million respectively.The average number of sperms from the first mating flight, in the spermatheca of queens mating on a second flight, was 3.462 million; for queens not mating again it was 4.628 million, and for queens not even flying again, 5.248 million. It is concluded that the amount of sperm from the first mating flight influences the likelihood of a second flight and successive matings.