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ROACHMAN

House Bee
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
343
Reaction score
1
Location
North Wiltshire uk
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
50+
I had a drone laying queen. I squashed her and replaced her with a new one which was let out last Friday.
I checked the hive today and I recon 50% of the bees were scrub drones and they had eaten nearly all the stores.
I could see a few eggs so the new queen has started to lay. There is a super on the hive with a few frames of honey which the drones are unable to get to due to the QE.
How shall I get rid of these drones, I was thinking to removing the queen and shaking out the bees onto the ground and hoping the drones wont be able to find their way back to the hive, will this work ? I dont want to shake out the eggs though !
Is there a risk of the queen dying of starvation or will the bees feed her with honey from the super ?
:confused:
 
Last edited:
Usually the worker bees kill off drones when they are not needed

You say that the drones are unable to get through the queen excluder. Try to remove the queen and put her somewhere safe for a short time. Then do a very gentle shake onto a sheet to remove any flying bees whilst brushing off the rest so as to get rid of any remaining drones.

Having already created a ramp, let the bees return to the hive, but this time have a QE under the brood box floor so that the drones can't get through it.

I see that you have 5 hives so presumably if any drones for mating are required, they are available. It may be a good idea to save a few drones for insurances sake
 
I'd be inclined to leave them alone if they have a newly introduced queen.

:iagree: They will either be killed or die off due to boredom (sex gets like that when its not available).
 
Leave them to sort themselves out.
I assume they will not feed the drones if they don't want them.
The bees feed the queen, she won't go hungry if thre's stores in the hive.
 

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