Apiary Mating (Open Mating)
Lexikon
With apiary mating, the mating units with the young queens are simply set up at one's own apiary.
With apiary mating, the mating units with the young queens are simply set up at one's own apiary. From there the queen flies to a drone congregation area and mates with the drones that happen to be there.
The advantage lies in the low effort: no transport, no registration, no delivery dates. The drawback is that the paternal side remains unknown. Drones fly several kilometers, and a drone congregation area gathers the drones of all the colonies in the surrounding area. Anyone relying on apiary mating therefore only knows which mother the queen comes from.
Anyone who wants to influence the mating at least somewhat deliberately keeps their own drone colonies at the apiary, meaning strong colonies with drawn-out drone comb from selected stock. This shifts the odds but does not replace controlled mating.
For normal operation, apiary mating is entirely sufficient. As soon as planned breeding is the goal, meaning deliberately improving traits, the route leads via a mating station or via instrumental insemination.