Drones at this time of year

DaveG23 · Feb 4, 2019

It was a very mild day today, very warm in the sun, all the hives were busy. One of my father in laws hives had 4 drones among the bees bringing back pollen.

Should I be worried about a drone laying queen?

Seems a bit early for drones but I guess some can survive the winter and maybe a sign of how mild it has been?

Will have a peek inside on the next warm day to check what the brood looks like

What do you think? Is it normal for drones at this time of year?

Into the lions den · Feb 4, 2019

Leave them alone. There is not much good you can do them anyway at this time.

For the most part I would consider a colony with drones overwinter in these islands to be in trouble, but would give it the benefit of 'wait and see'.

See the odd hive with drones in winter/early spring. They are usually duds.

Parsonage Bees · Feb 4, 2019

I found a drone on the landing board a week ago. Hive is sheltered, big population (of workers, didn't notice any drones) when I opened to do OA dribble before Christmas. Last year I saw drones until Christmas. That colony survived. I could worry but nothing to do for a couple of months.

SDM · Feb 4, 2019

Plus there's no guarantees that those returning drones even come from that hive.
As has been said, there's little to do about it now.

Ian123 · Feb 4, 2019

As itld says leave well alone nothing can be done atm...A few years ago i had a truly epic colony that had produced a great summer crop and even a couple of boxes of heather off nearby heathland. I noticed drones just before xmas flying with what i presumed other bees doing orientation flights. Rather gutted i assumed the worse and kept an eye for the rest of the winter, just about every time i saw bees out flying from this hive there would be a drone or 2 with them up to about half a dozen. So on first spring inspection i went in and found a very large colony that had come through very strong with no drone laying queen. Going back through wondering what was going on all i could find was a small patch of drone brood/comb in the centre of the area i guess was the main area of the cluster overwinter. The only conclusion i could come up with was this large colony had continued to raise brood and this small patch happened to be located slap bang in the centre of the cluster.