Time Factors in Mating Systems for Honey Bees1

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Abstract
Physical pairing between brother and sister results in the equivalent of mother-daughter mating, because of the haploid nature of the drone, which eliminates Mendelian segregation and sampling in the gametes produced by him. Thus inbreeding may be very rapid. Several charts are given, showing the effects of generation-interval differences on the rate of inbreeding in 6 different honey bee mating systems. In some cases, the limiting factor is drone development, which requires 48 days in each generation. But, for example, the grandmother-granddaughter system, in which 2 generations of queens are reared from 1 female before her drones are needed, results in the production of a new generation about every 30 days. The various factors under each system are analyzed.

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