First inspection lots of drone brood

[olriley]

Hi. Looked in the three overwintered hives in my home apiary yesterday. All queenright and no disease spotted. Heavy pollen ingress, stores and brood of all stages. I use Rose hives and they all have brood across two boxes - equivalent to national brood and half give or take. Happy days.

The busiest hive is in the sunniest aspect. It has the most brood and will need more space soon. There’s quite a bit of drone around the edges. Pic 1. Also some drones emerged.

I allowed them to draw without foundation in every other frame last season, so are they just utilising the larger cells where they have them, or is this indicative of something abnormal?

Also some the laying pattern looked patchy in places, but IDK if this is just due to emerging bees. Pic 2 and better pattern in 3.

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[olriley]

Pics got muddled and cane out 3 2 1... [emoji849]


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[Finman]

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When a natural hive makes combs without foundations, drone combs will be on average 25%. With foundations the colony makes under 10% drone combs.

Drones are waste of energy. No one needs so much drones.

But the colony needs space for drone cells. Otherwise they put combs here and there.

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[Podilia]

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Drones are waste of energy. No one needs so much drones.

Bees always need certain amount of drones. Until they don't have enough they rear them everywhere. They never waste energy or resources. In my opinion drones also help to maintain high temperature in a nest.
In the picture above the queen probably is old.

 

[Finman]

They never waste energy or resources. In my opinion drones also help to maintain high temperature.

They want to spread they genes.

Drones does not maintain temperature. It is workers who do that.

Natural combs are waste of energy and honey. So simple.


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[Podilia]

They want to spread they genes.

Drones does not maintain temperature. It is workers who do that.

If workers are in a field during honeyflow...

Natural combs are waste of energy and honey. So simple.

In your previous post you write that "drones are waste of energy", now you write that "natural combs are waste of energy". Please, Finman, be consistent. Have you used natural combs? Can you compare natural combs and combs on a fondation?

If bees have a bad queen and this queen is going to overwinter in their colony they can even keep drones in winter until the next season. Many beekeepers observed this fact.
In the picture we probably see the work of an old queen. But we don't know the entire info about that colony.

 

[Finman]

If workers are in a field during honeyflow...

In your previous post you write that "drones are waste of energy", now you write that "natural combs are waste of energy". Please, Finman, be consistent. Have you used natural combs? Can you compare natural combs and combs on a fondation?

If bees have a bad queen and this queen is going to overwinter in their colony they can even keep drones in winter until the next season. Many beekeepers observed this fact.
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After 55 y beekeeping I know these things enough.

You must change your bad Queen before Winter, or you will get a from layer during Winter. Keep pare hives.


Natural combs = lots of drones, less workers.

Half of workers, over 3 week old, are foragers. Another half do home works.

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[beeno]

Got some hives with this year's drones in them. Hope the ones that one hive evicted got a home in the others.

 

[bjosephd]

Lots of drones means better mated queens I’d argue. Better mated queens means less drone layers.

 

[Finman]

Lots of drones means better mated queens I’d argue. Better mated queens means less drone layers.

Halleluja!

But your queens are already mated. One virgin needs 16 drones, not 16 000.



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[Finman]

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Odd things.

Professionals beekeepers think that drones are not needed much. And two hive owners think that much is better. Drones will do soon workers' jobs.

 

[Beefriendly]

Lots of drones means better mated queens .

For other beekeepers queens. It's other nearby beekeepers you want to encourage to have lots of drones to mate with your virgin queens.

 

[madasafish]

For other beekeepers queens. It's other nearby beekeepers you want to encourage to have lots of drones to mate with your virgin queens.

NOT if they are local to me mongrels.. All the worst in bees- swarmy, stingy, low honey yields..

 

[Beefriendly]

NOT if they are local to me mongrels.. All the worst in bees- swarmy, stingy, low honey yields..

Yess....I have the same problems.

 

[Podilia]

After 55 y beekeeping I know these things enough.

Natural combs = lots of drones, less workers.

Half of workers, over 3 week old, are foragers. Another half do home works.

Have you used "natural combs" in your 55 years practice?
As I'm not a professional beekeeper, I use natural combs for just two seasons. I agree there is a lot of dron cells but it doesn't mean that all of them are used for drones. Bees fill such combs with honey as well. I decided to use natural combs because our manufacturers of wax foundation mix natural wax with some substances (paraffin etc.). Foundation also contains a lot of residues of varroa treatment. Our foundation is obviously bad. If I had had clear wax foundation I should have used it.
Back to our subject, a colony always (in summer) needs several hundreds of drones. In my opinion they don't waste so much energy as someone believes. They never have more drones than needed if that colony is healthy and has a good queen. Less workers means that a colony can die in the future. We don't need such colonies.

Half of workers, over 3 week old, are foragers. Another half do home works.

Younger bees also can be foragers if good flow is going on. This instinct - to bring as much food as possible - is stronger than brood (or dron) rearing, or swarming, or other instincts.

 

[Finman]

Have you used "natural combs" in your 55 years practice?

Younger bees also can be foragers if good flow is going on. This instinct - to bring as much food as possible - is stronger than brood (or dron) rearing, or swarming, or other instincts.

I see natural combs every year. Nothing miracle in them..... Have I used natural combs... Absolutely not. To make one langstroth box natural combs bees need 15 kg honey. And then those drone brood. It us a catastrophe. There is no reason to use natural combs. A foundation sheet cost is 30 cents from own wax.

Young bees do not forage. That is very clear.

My hives bring 60-150 kg honey per hive in 1.5 months. I know something about bees and beekeeping.

 

[Angry_Mob]

For other beekeepers queens. It's other nearby beekeepers you want to encourage to have lots of drones to mate with your virgin queens.

During one of the association meetings we had a bee farmer in who told us that he kept a hive for drone production, his theory was that while he didn't benefit directly from it, he did indirectly down the line as it improved the genetics of his neighbours queens.

 

[Hivemaker.]

During one of the association meetings we had a bee farmer in who told us that he kept a hive for drone production

Just the one hive?

 

[Angry_Mob]

Not sure, whether one hive per apiary or several in total.

 

[Swarm]

Without drones you don't have bees.