The Life and Flight Activity of Drones

Abstract

This article is based on the paper read by Professor Ruttner at the B.R.A. Conference on the Drone Honeybee (see page 50). It holds many points of interest, in addition to the new light thrown on the behaviour of the drones themselves. We are nowadays used to the idea of permitted flight levels for aircraft, of a country's ‘air-space’, and of the territories and mating grounds of birds. Here we learn that workers and drones have their own separate flight regions in the air, and why this is in fact necessary. We learn that the flight paths of drones are not always random ones, but that the drones may be drawn irresistably to certain locations, which they are then most reluctant to leave. Beekeepers in the past have occasionally noticed and reported assemblies of drones in the air, but were not in a position to find out much about them, for only very recently have methods been devised for locating and studying drones in flight. And the information that has so far come to light is, as Professor Ruttner points out, only the beginning of what may be discovered in the next few years.