Science / Medicine : Bee ‘Mating Chamber’ Developed

Researchers at Oregon State University said last week that they have developed a honeybee “mating chamber” that could revolutionize beekeeping and that could possibly help alleviate the threat caused by Africanized bees that are moving into the United States from Central America.

Mating female bees with particular males has been a very difficult task, in large part because the mating is carried out while the bees are in flight.

“The problem is that when you put a (virgin) queen and male bees in a cage, they just fly up in one corner toward the brightest light,” said entomologist Philippe Rossignol. “In every type of confinement ever before tried, the drones simply had no interest in mating.”

Rossignol and his colleagues developed a cage in which light comes from all directions so that the bees think they are flying in the open. They suspend the female in a harness so that it looks as if she is flying, and add males. He said the technique works about half the time, a much greater success rate than is achieved with any other type of controlled mating.