Fnd lots of drone laying queens

[MuswellMetro]

Despite good but small brood patterns when i inspected 8/9 days ago (during the first warm spell) i have found on inspection today a couple that once HM has gone into full laying mode are now a drone layer Queens....poor mating last year

one had five frames of drone and one frame of emerging workers

Think this will become a growing trend

donre know whther to shake or add eggs,even my overwinters nuc have gone DLQ

 

[Cefn Eithaf]

.....same here in one of my colonies only. Added frame of eggs from another colony two weeks in a row with another week to go. Will see what happens next week. The drone layers have stopped but HRH has not started laying. Time will tell but they may be headed for a shaking !

 

[itma]

Surely a colony with DLQ is worth the donation of a frame with (hopefully fertilised) eggs?

Shaking out DLW is the routine, but isn't it a bit severe for DLQ, even if you don't have a truly spare Q to offer them?


/ I'd have thought that even combining with a weak colony would be a better option than just shaking out.

 

[MuswellMetro]

.....same here in one of my colonies only. Added frame of eggs from another colony two weeks in a row with another week to go. Will see what happens next week. The drone layers have stopped but HRH has not started laying. Time will tell but they may be headed for a shaking !

agree but eggs are short supply and they re a black bee on this apiary and they get quite aggressive when queen-less, and the location is not ideal for aggressive bees..i would have to move them to add eggs

i am currently bleeding off the foragers to a weaker hive next to the DLQ

 

[oliver90owner]

Two years ago, May was lousy for mating; same last year. Your choice as to whether you wish to risk it. Weather forecasts are just about useless as a general rule. Without much drone brood around, the bees are not yet prepared for much mating activity.

RAB

 

[Haughton Honey]

Two and a bit weeks to raise a VQ and then perhaps up to four weeks to get here mated - takes you up to early/mid June.

You may be lucky. But then you may not.

 

[Teemore]

I took a notion to read back through one of my copies of Digges' book "The Practical Bee Guide" - 12th edition (1944). He gives a description of "The Yearly Round" of beekeeping starting at page 291 and I found it interesting that the weather/seasonal patterns referred to and the level of colony development seems very similar to what we are experiencing in 2013. It has been commented elsewhere that we have experienced a good number of mild Winters and early Springs: perhaps things are moving back to what was previously considered normal....

The other point of note from Digges is that looking into hives too early can lead to the Queen being balled. Could this be a reason why some colonies are suddenly and unexpectedly failing this year??

 

[Arfermo]

Had an unexpected DLQ this year as earlier she had been going strongly with normal brooding. Must have run out of sperm. Considered inserting frames of eggs and larvae from other hives to keep it going until a replacement Q could be found locally but gave up yesterday as it looks as though it will be ages before there are enough drones around to achieve good mating potential (end of May at best?) and so united the two halves with two other colonies. Guess what. Thousands of bees dead on the ground outside the importing hives. Should have sprayed them with eau-de-cologne or something else more to their fancy?