A population investment sex ratio for the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.)

Data from two honey bee population brood-rearing studies suggest that a stable populational colony investment sex ratio exists for the honey bee. As a consequence of the fissioning mode of colony reproduction, this investment ratio is best expressed in terms of the average population production of reproductive male (drone) biomass and the biomass of sterile workers. A tentative model for a populational investment sex ratio based on Fisher's (1930) sex ratio hypothesis is presented in terms of colony seasonal drone and worker brood production and suggests a ratio for both populations tending toward 1:1. Colonies that produced no reproductive females during an annual season produced an average of 18,969 ± 7,267 (± SD, n = 7 colonies) males per colony for the first study and 22,560 ± 8,280 (n = 13 colonies) for the other. Three colonies from the second study did produce reproductive females and underwent colony fission. These colonies produced an average of 20,856 ± 4,241 males before fissioning occurred. One orphaned colony produced 6,161 males before it died.