Drone Brood

[GillGM]

Inspecting today I had a normal looking colony over five frames, sealed brood, lavae and eggs but on a parallel frame, and laid over the seven days since I last inspected, to one side of the spherical colony was a whole frame of drone cells. What's going on?

 

[enrico]

Sounds stupid but you can get drone foundation. Are you SURE that it was normal cell foundation. Just a thought! It does sound unusual to get a whole frame of drone in the way you describe. Useful for culling for varroa though! Just maybe your queen knows something you don't and needs men around!

 

[For want of a better word]

Sounds stupid but you can get drone foundation. Are you SURE that it was normal cell foundation. Just a thought! It does sound unusual to get a whole frame of drone in the way you describe. Useful for culling for varroa though! Just maybe your queen knows something you don't and needs men around!

Not a good idea to cull drones at the moment.... needed for mating?

 

[richardbees]

Gill

I had exactly the same when I inspected a colony about 2 weeks ago....it wasn't a full frame of drone brood but a solid patch the same size as the patches of 'normal' brood on the other frames.
When I inspected last week, after all this good weather, there was 'normal' brood fully across seven frames with no more than average drone brood.

I think the bees had gone into emergency survival mode, after the crap April shortening the mating season, knowing the colony needed a supply of drones to survive.

just a thought....but there's always a reason for unexpected behaviour with bees

Richard

 

[beebreeder]

Not a good idea to cull drones at the moment.... needed for mating?

Especially the Buckfast drones, they seem to have built up far better than any others I have.

 

[mbc]

Especially the Buckfast drones, they seem to have built up far better than any others I have.

If a buckfast is a specific cross then is there really such a thing as a buckfast drone ?

 

[For want of a better word]

If a buckfast is a specific cross then is there really such a thing as a buckfast drone ?

A flying gammon..... as my littlest one quipped the other day ( possibly knows more about bees at 6 as I did at 60!)