Drone Numbers

[Jon]

Anyone else still got significant numbers of drones?

I still have a couple of frames like this in my stronger colonies - pic taken on Saturday.

I have stopped grafting but that is because the wasps have become an obstacle to queen rearing in apideas.

798

[Jimbo]

Hi Jon,

I was conducting a varroa training day on Sat for my local associaion and was in a number of their hives. There was still a significant number of drones in each including a patch of drone cells still to hatch. (I used it to demontrate how to check for varroa. My luck was in as the small patch had loads of varroa for the new beekeers to see)

[Adam]

I have a couple of (unplanned) queens that should have just started laying; No home for them to go to though. Queen rearing definitely finished. I have an abundance of wasps and apart from seeing bee parts outside the entrance of hives where wasps have taken bee bits off to eat, they haven't caused a real problem and got into the hives and caused devestation yet.

My luck was in as the small patch had loads of varroa for the new beekeers to see.

A strange kind of luck to me! :)

[The Drone Ranger]

I have a couple of (unplanned) queens that should have just started laying; No home for them to go to though

Hi Adam

I looked at queen banking on the internet a little while back.

You might be able to get your spare queens through winter (there are a few alternative methods) and they might be a great asset in the spring

[madasafish]

Anyone else still got significant numbers of drones?


798

Yes: but some hives are starting to throw them out. The weather here has turned cold and wet (turned? feels like it's been that most of the summer) and casualties litter the ground in front of 3 out of 8 colonies..

[Trog]

Our biggest colony had a frame full of drones right on the outside. They did give the impression they were keeping out of the way, trying to be invisible! I've seen unhatched drone brood thrown out (last week) and there are only two or three drone cells still around on the frames.

[Jon]

Hi Adam

I looked at queen banking on the internet a little while back.

I did a bit of reading on this a couple of months ago but am not sure it would work over winter.
I fancy having a go at overwintering queens in double or triple apideas - probably the equivalent of a frame of bees with each queen. The bees can cluster properly in a well insulated apidea.
Andrew Abrahams did a talk on overwintering queens in apideas at the Bibba conference last September and he has managed it on Colonsay.
I remember he said the big problem was lack of pollen in the spring but you could get around that by buying a couple of kilos of pollen patty or making your own.

[Rosie]

I remember he said the big problem was lack of pollen in the spring but you could get around that by buying a couple of kilos of pollen patty or making your own.

Didn't he say that the successful ones had managed to store plenty of pollen in the Autumn?

Rosie

[Jon]

Probably did. I just remember the focus was very much on available pollen.
I was impressed that anyone could overwinter apideas so far north.
I worded the above badly. The idea of buying pollen was mine rather than his.

[Adam]

809I've got a couple of mini-nucs which are full and have laying queen in that are rubbish (They created their own after I took the queen away) and they could be united during September with a reasonable queen. I also have a spare one of these - with just 5 frames. Measuring 140 x 140, there may just be enough size to get them through. I've got through 9 framed versions before.