Lots of drones around

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I don't use queen excluders and there's occasionally some drone brood and worker brood in the first super when the queen is really on song but what was there at the end of May and early June is now emerged and they are back filling with honey.
Hi Pargyle,
I am interested in how you manage your colonies without a Qx. Is it unique to yourself or is it a recognised approach.
Alan.
 
Hi Pargyle,
I am interested in how you manage your colonies without a Qx. Is it unique to yourself or is it a recognised approach.
Alan.
It's not unique to me ... lots of people manage without queen excluders. I run 14 x 12's and it's probably easier than with a smaller box. What happens is that when you first put a super on the hive the queen will occasionally move up into the super and lay up ... if it happens then it's usually in an arc above the brood nest in the middle of the hive. it's normally only early in the season when the queen is really laying to build up the colony and more often than not she lays up drone brood. Once the bees have emerged and the season continues the queen will return to the brood box and they clean the cells and back fill them with honey. I've rarely had a queen lay in a second super. What eventually happens is they eventually create an arc of honey and pollen above the brood nest and this creates a natural barrier for the queen.

I've never had the situation where there was brood in a super that was ready to extract - I tend to extract once at the end of the season, if there is a spring crop I leave it on the hive as you never know when there's going to be a June gap and I like to know my bees have stores available if they need to dig in.

I also like the fact that the queen and the drones have the ability to go wherever they wish in the hive - I am a bit off the beaten track with my beekeeping - I run my frames foundationless and I don't treat my bees for varroa, I have highly insulated hives and I suppose you would call my style of beekeeping low interference. Don't for one minute think that I am a leave alone beekeeper - far from it. I do regular sugar rolls to check varroa levels and I inspect for signs of swarming and do artificial swarms if I see queen cells...my inspections tend to look only for things I need to see - and once I'm happy with what I see I close up. My bees are healthy, survive, thrive, I get a reasonable crop of honey and they seem to be managing the relatively low levels of varroa I find in the colonies. It's a system ... it's not for everybody and I certainly don't encourage people to follow in my footsteps but it works for me and appears to suit my bees.
 

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