Mating flight losses

[ikwezinz 97]

Out of interest what percentage of mating flights are unsuccessful, been a shocker this year, some really windy days but others perfect weather but the virgin queen is gone, running at about 40% success rate 

[dansar 5,524]

38 minutes ago, ikwezinz said:

Out of interest what percentage of mating flights are unsuccessful, been a shocker this year, some really windy days but others perfect weather but the virgin queen is gone, running at about 40% success rate 

80% is acceptable 90% even better 95+% I’m ecstatic

 

I’ve had around 40% success with queen matings this year. 
Hoping for better results in January with more settled weather.

 

I was talking a a friend in Levin today and he was saying the weather has been pretty average down there through spring and even now.

You are in Otaki correct? 
The Tararua range doing it’s best to pull in the stormy clouds!

Edited December 22, 2020 by dansar

[ikwezinz 97]

Yes Otaki/Te Horo, weather has been pretty average with rain and high winds, was feeding up to 3 weeks ago but we have finally had some hot weather and there is a flow on finally, but now another 4 days of rain forecast ☹ 

 

Guess I will wait for weather to settle and try again, I thought the success rate was pretty low 

[jamesc 4,924]

A lot of your success or failure will be due to the location of your mating sites.

 

Last year we moved our nuc mating yards up into the forestry. In our original sites we were running at a 60-80% success rate in a good year.......  20-30% in a poor year.

The new sites are old skid sites, surrounded by pines and very warm on blustery Nor'West day. This year we got over 95% on the units we made up , and even in cold wet weather they seem to get the odd hour to achieve success.

 

Location, Location, Location .....

[kaihoka 2,976]

6 hours ago, jamesc said:

A lot of your success or failure will be due to the location of your mating sites.

 

Last year we moved our nuc mating yards up into the forestry. In our original sites we were running at a 60-80% success rate in a good year.......  20-30% in a poor year.

The new sites are old skid sites, surrounded by pines and very warm on blustery Nor'West day. This year we got over 95% on the units we made up , and even in cold wet weather they seem to get the odd hour to achieve success.

 

Location, Location, Location .....

i thought mating happened in a drone zone.

so would the success   of a mating site depend on how sheltered the flight path to the drone zone was.

[john berry 5,636]

Bad weather obviously has  a strong effect on mating success but over the years I have also had apiarys which for no obvious reason always seem to have well below average mating success.

I have also had sites that regularly have well above average success with over 90% not being unusual.

I am sure that shelter has some effect but one apiary in particular that always had lousy mating was in a beautifully sheltered and productive site.

I generally don't raise many queens in spring but if I do I don't start till there are enough drones and try and finish before  the equinoxial  gales start. Autumn weather tends to be far more settled but unless there is a really bad drought I don't start until 15 February as for some reason you get poorer results before this time and I like to be finished by 15 March but you can go a lot later than that if you need to depending on the season.