A virgin queen leaves the hive on nuptial flights and mates in mid-air with drones gathered in a drone congregation area (DCA) — a spot in the sky, often 10–40m up, that drones return to year after year. She may take several flights over a few days, mating with 12–20 drones in total before returning to the hive to begin laying.
A queen stores the sperm from all her mating flights for life in a single organ, the spermatheca — she never mates again after she starts laying, so a poor weather window during her mating period can affect the colony's genetic diversity for years.
A virgin queen launches from her hive and flies up into a drone congregation area — a real 3D volume in the sky where drones from many colonies gather — and her odds of mating well depend on temperature, wind, drone density and the time of day.
Mating success is modelled as the product of a temperature suitability curve, a wind-shear penalty, drone-density coverage and a time-of-day window, then resolved live as the queen circles the DCA and either mates with multiple drones or returns unmated.
Set temperature, wind speed, drone density and time of day, watch the estimated success probability update, then press Launch mating flight to send the queen up and see the outcome animate in the drone congregation area.
A single poor weather week during the mating season can leave a queen under-mated for life — she stores sperm permanently in her spermatheca and never returns to a DCA once she starts laying eggs.