Drone brood pic.

[Torq]

For those who are fortunate not to have seen it before, this is what drone brood looks like.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ahhhhh that's better

 

[Torq]

To resize or not to resize that is the question

I chose not to resize the pic as I figure that these days most people are on broadband and not 56k dial up so big pics are not so much of an issue. Also it's only the few like me who use a netbook that'll have the big picture problem, most of you posh bee keeping types with your wide screen monitors shouldn't have any problem!

I thought the extra detail would give give people more to see and do like play "count the drones"

 

[RoofTops]

At 3,000+ pixels wide it is a bit big for most screens I fear but Admin's time swich will prevent you editing the post now so don't worry.

But topical post, I checked my colonies today and one looks like she is going this way.

 

[newportbuzz]

can i ask what would cause this in a hive as i have one hive that has this exact pic.
i thought it was a failing queen laying just drones. any info welcome as it might change how i deal with the hive. (current plan is to give queen cell and flying bees )

 

[richardbees]

Torq

rooftops correct - I always enjoy photos but that was just too big for my 17" Dell PC screen.

You've got a "Drone laying queen" with sod all flying bees left by the looks of things.

Sorry, but I'd recommend you 'retire' that colony and start again from scratch with a nuc and new foundation.

Quite happy to have opposing suggestions!

richard

 

[BobsBees]

newportbuzz,
Could be Queen past her prime, 3 yrs old plus.
If she is last years Queen, then she was not mated with enough drones.
If you have access to a frame of capped or near capped Brood then you can buy some time while you seek another Queen from another beek, or indeed ask around for a capped Queen cell on a frame would do the trick.
Just my thoughts.
Bob.

 

[Mike a]

Sorry but that colony is done for.

Definitely not worth adding frames from another colony to try and save it unless you add enough bees at the same time to keep the temperatures high enough and of course pointless anyway considering you'd only be trying to save frames of drone brood and a failed queen...

 

[newportbuzz]

i thought it was dlq alright my hive has about 2k bees about half drones but my strong hives arnt showing signs of swarming so i convinced them to make a few cells for me. so i would like to hold on to the drones if i can. my queen cells should be capped day after tomoro so all this will be happening for me next week.
my aim is to replace my winter loses so i am efectivly spliting my one very strong hive 4 ways among my two dying hives and a extra hive of the half brood.
i know this is very hopefull. but as i see it the worst thing that can happen is i lose my big hive but i think more likely is 2-3 of the splits will do well

this all came about from my first inspection of the year which reveiled two dying hives and one very strong one.
i shall not be keeping any of the failing genetics for long as i have queens coming in the summer so all i really need is to get hive numbers back up.

 

[Torq]

Torq

rooftops correct - I always enjoy photos but that was just too big for my 17" Dell PC screen.

You've got a "Drone laying queen" with sod all flying bees left by the looks of things.

Sorry, but I'd recommend you 'retire' that colony and start again from scratch with a nuc and new foundation.

Quite happy to have opposing suggestions!

richard

Yea it's a bit big alright! Who ever thought of putting an 8.1Mpx camera in a phone needs to be shot, or stung. I would have edited the post but this forum is the only one I'm on that doesn't appear to allow editing of posts.

Got my new nuc last week and they appear to be doing well. I've been thinking how I can save the old colony but came to the realization a few days ago that anything I do will only delay the enevitable, it's terminal. It'll be sad to watch them die but I guess that's nature in action.

 

[psafloyd]

My queen has laid up some occasional drone like this, but I assumed this was due to me removing much of the drone brood at the bottom of the frames.

 

[Mike a]

so i would like to hold on to the drones if i can.

The drones will not survive and hatch without enough bees to keep them warm. Chances are they are already dead.

my aim is to replace my winter loses so i am efectivly spliting my one very strong hive 4 ways among my two dying hives and a extra hive of the half brood.
i know this is very hopefull. but as i see it the worst thing that can happen is i lose my big hive but i think more likely is 2-3 of the splits will do well

Unless your strong colony is VERY strong with mostly frames of sealed brood and so many bees you can hardly see the frame underneath you may want to split this colony in two to start with then split again later in the year once the parent hive has built up again.

2 good colonies is far better than 4 weak ones.