strange knocking of drones practice

[nagabee]

i came across a strange practice in my neck of the woods, while talking with soneone, was advice to kill most of the drones. asked why is this ? the response was they [drones] will eat up the eggs etc]

this did not make much sense.

please note that i live in strange place with lots of strange practices.

any thoughts

 

[Madge]

i came across a strange practice ...
any thoughts

I've never heard of drones eating eggs, Nagaland, or ever seen drones with their heads stuck into brood cells.

Let the drones be. The workers will decide how many drones they need in their hive.

 

[Greggorio]

Could they have meant varroa eggs (that it will eat them up in the sense of getting rid of loads of them?)

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

[Madge]

Could they have meant varroa eggs (that it will eat them up in the sense of getting rid of loads of them?)

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

Oh yes, might be. They probably advised to cull drone brood (not flying drones) as part of an attempt to control varroa.

 

[nagabee]

thanks all,
for controlling varroa it would make sense,
but why the drones only as worker bees also go out. do not the worker bees get varroa?

 

[Madge]

thanks all,
for controlling varroa it would make sense,
but why the drones only as worker bees also go out. do not the worker bees get varroa?

They do - but varroa mites multiply inside brood cells and as drones emerge later from their cells than worker bees, the female varroa mites prefer drone brood. So, culling drone brood (larvae) helps to cull varroa. Do you have varroa mites in your colonies?

 

[nagabee]

i only got my bees 2 days back, not yet fully checked out yet, as i am giving them time to settle down, not seen any damaged bees yet. working on a netting floor with inspection tray. will find out once its installed.

 

[Madge]

Ok - don't cull your drone brood just yet! See what you find on your inspection tray. You might not need to cull drones at all. I don't know about beekeeping in Nagaland, but here (in Scotland) some of my colonies are already starting to evict their drones.

 

[nagabee]

thanks Madge
will get back in few days

 

[Tomo]

Some would say that the drone is the most important bee..... the bees will sort them out. I would not interfere, they know what they are doing more than we do! Let them bee.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Some would say that the drone is the most important bee..... the bees will sort them out. I would not interfere, they know what they are doing more than we do! Let them bee.

are your bees Asian honey bees or european honey bees?

 

[nagabee]

hi, they are asian one. i think apis cerana [indica?]am trying to find out for certain. see the link below

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34807

 

[nagabee]

i did not see any mites , however there were some wriggle wiggley things on the wood of the frames, and whole beehive is i think needs to be changed. so off to make a new one in next few days.

 

[Madge]

If your bees are Apis cerana, then they can cope much better with varroa than mellifera. I don't think you need to worry about the wiggly things!
Kitta

 

[nagabee]

hi kitta, i think they are woodworms, either way plan to rehive in a new hive. as this one is rotten.

 

[MuswellMetro]

]

Varroa will not usually reproduce in Larvae of worker cells of Apis ceranae unlike Apis Mellifera. So culling all capped drone brood of Apis ceranae is much more beneficial to Apis c's colonies than drone culling in Apis m's colonies

with Apis c he would be better doing migratory beekeeping as their forage area is very small and once the forage is exhausted or they have collected 3 or 4kg of honey they tend to abscond or swarm

 

[MuswellMetro]

i did not see any mites , however there were some wriggle wiggley things on the wood of the frames, and whole beehive is i think needs to be changed. so off to make a new one in next few days.

i think you have Greater Wax moth larvae https://danieljmarsh.wordpress.com/tag/greater-wax-moth/

they are quite common in Eurasia and weak colonies are suseptable to wax moth infestations

 

[nagabee]

the blighters ! now i have to get a new hive and transfer the bees. i can see more questions coming up soon and new thread starting.

thanks for the link MM

 

[MuswellMetro]

the blighters ! now i have to get a new hive and transfer the bees. i can see more questions coming up soon and new thread starting.

thanks for the link Kitta

tap the frame and the wax moth larvae come out to see what happening, then squish them

 

[nagabee]

thanks for the link and the tip MuswellMetro, will do as you suggested. also looking to change the hive as its somewhat rotting.

best