Have I a drone problem

[mervyn]

I have just done my hive inspection and it seems to have an exessive amount of drone bees, drone cells and larva - have I got a problem - can anyone explain?

Merv

 

[Firegazer]

What do you mean by excessive?

Two main reasons for lots of drones (I believe):

1) the colony is happy, likes the weather and is starting to produce drones as a normal "preparing for summer and possible swarming" action;

2) the queen has run out of stored semen and is now only capable of producing unfertilised drones rather than fertilised worker bees;

(1) is healthy and good; (2) is a possible disaster, unless the colony started producing a new queen for supersedure before the current queen's sperm store ran out, in which case they'll sort it out.

If (2) and no queen cells being brought on, then you need a new queen asap, or this colony will just dwindle away. Another worker could become fertile as the current queen fades away, but any queen produced that way isn't likely to be much good.

HTH

FG

 

[Tom Bick]

Its hard to say also not able to see your hive.

When they first start to produce drones it can look like a lot until we get used to seeing them again. But on the other hand the queen can become a drone laying queen, although I have not seen this personally but know that if you have frames that are splattered with drone brood across them where you would normally have worker brood then perhaps you have a problem but if you have good worker brood pattern and plenty of drone brood around the outsides and along the bottom of the frames then perhaps you are ok and they are just keen to produce drones and getting ready to swarm.

Having said that I shook swarmed one of my hives a week ago and one frame had the classic drone laying queen pattern but all looks ok at the moment. I say at the moment as it can all change.

 

[mandabow]

lots is somewhat subjective i think naturally thay can have more than 30% we just tend to try and minimise by using standard cell sizes on foundation.. It may be yor bees are a little smaller so are more happy/encouraged to produce drones. It is swarming time so if they are strong enough to support lots of drones then getting their genetics out to the new vigin queens in other colonies may be the goal.

If there are loads and loads:

did you see/how old is your queen? It may be she has run out of sperm and is only able to lay drones... Or she may be failing/gone and the workers laying drones... If there is normal brood as well workers should start superceedure by converting normal eggs to queens to replace her. If there is no open brood then they may not be able to so give them a frame containing newly laid brood from one of your other hives..

If you have a verona problem culling the drone brood will help otherwise you may as well leave as lots of drones will help ensure your new queen will be well mated.

search on the fora there are many similar threads with lots of explainations and good advice

 

[Poly Hive]

Classic drone laying queen pattern is NOTHING but drone brood.

I killed off one of those yesterday.

If your comb is "droney" ie far too many drone cells on it, then you will get a lot of them, stands to reason.

PH

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

Classic drone laying queen pattern is NOTHING but drone brood.

I killed off one of those yesterday.

PH

Poly

Can you say why you killed the colony off, rather than just letting it fade away? (I ask because I think I have either a DLQ or a laying worker in one of mine and have so far chosen the line of least resistance).

Secondly, presumably once that colony has gone to the great heatherlands in the sky, the frames etc (presumably cleaned up) can be reused without problem?

 

[mandabow]

Classic drone laying queen pattern is NOTHING but drone brood.
PH

ultimately yes.. But i was taught the same idea as Tom.. That as the queen fails she produces some male some female, and even when she's producing all male that she will continue laying 'as normal' in recently cleaned out comb as it becomes available, therefore all over frame. Wheras if droes are being produced for meeting upcoming virgin demand then they tend to be in patches towards the bottom or sides of predominantly normal brood frames, where stores would more normally be seen. As their survival to fertiles a new colony is not as important as the main brood
Is to the survival of existing.

I may well be mistaken tho.

 

[Poly Hive]

I said nothing about killing off the colony. However I can see how it may be misinterpeted.

I found a DLQ, and killed HER, and shook of the remaining bees in front of another colony. All 200 or so.

I killed another queen today because of temperament, and united her colony to another so as to boost it considerably, some 7 frames of brood added on.

From that boosted colony I will take at least one if not two nucs later in the season and so restore my numbers.

Always look to boost the strongest hive when uniting. Ignore the weaker ones unless you are desperate fro numbers, as honey comes from strong hives not weak ones.

In fact to be brutal about it is far more efficient to unite the weakest to the strongest for getting a crop and restore numbers later in the season.

PH

 

[MJBee]

Mandabow - 2 ways of arriving at the drone laying stage

the first as you describe she is running out of semen and the ratio of worker to drone gets worse and worse until eventually - if you and/or the bees do nothing about it - all drone.

The second is an unmated or mismated queen that lays all drone from the off - which is what I think PH was referring to.

 

[Poly Hive]

She was a mis mated queen which has run out of semen from last years matings later on.

PH