Honey bee queens mate with about 20 drones in a single mating flight. This means that workers in a hive are divided into a number of different subfamilies. Together with Dr Ben Oldroyd in the School of Biological Sciences and people in the Bee Lab there, Dr Myerscough is working on models for how this genetic variability affects communal behaviours which have genetic components. In particular we are trying to answer the question: does having genetically different bees in the colony make the colony more efficient at the various tasks, such as foraging, which it has to perform to ensure its survival. The mathematical models we have used so far include simulations and ordinary differential equation models.
See Bee laboratory