I have a hive which grow very slow and always has little stock. I noticed that it contains too many drones, I estimated about 15-20% from total population. Is this due to lousy queen or any other factors?
Quote from: lywI have a hive which grow very slow and always has little stock. I noticed that it contains too many drones, I estimated about 15-20% from total population. Is this due to lousy queen or any other factors?
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Queen may bee violated. It unsucceed to fertilaze eggs. I have had that kind of problems. And after a while, they were only drones.
Take a look at your comb too. If there is alot of drone sized comb in the brood nest, the queen will happily fill them up for you. In the spring, move the drone comb up to the supers for nectar storage and give them some worker comb or some foundation. Too many freeloaders puts a strain on stores in the winter.
Have you seen the queen recently? If the queen is gone and no new queen has yet superceded, you may have laying workers. Laying workers can only lay drones and they come about when the queen's pheremone is no longer circulating around the hive. If this is the case, eventually your whole hive will be drones and is doomed with no new workers. :( . Where are you located and what is the climate in your area now?
If Jay is right you need a new queen right away which might be impossible right now due to no one ships queens right now. If you have someone near you with a weak hive maybe you can buy it and combine combine them together. That might be one of your best bets due to not many people have an extra queen just hanging around. bye
Ya, the queen is still there and the combs available for her are normal, means no excessive drone cell. I think Finman is right, requeen is the only way. Just leave it untill time up for requeen.
Quote from: lywYa, the queen is still there and the combs available for her are normal, means no excessive drone cell. I think Finman is right, requeen is the only way. Just leave it untill time up for requeen.
Last spring one queen layed eggs very slowly. Then it stopped totally. Quite often some queens are sick after winter. They get nosema. That is why it is necessary to control brood every month, also for brood deseases.
I control my new queens for deseases resistance. If brood area is porous, I take queen off.
Queen may also have dark spot in her abdomen. It is not good sign. I have seen that it will have diifficulties later. Also if antenna is vilolated, it may drop egg laying. Or it has lost nails from its one leg, and moving is slipping.
what jay was saying happened to me my second year of beekeeping. i had so many drones, and i couldnt find the queen. turns out something happend to her, not shure what? anyway, i couldnt get a new queen at that time so like ryan said, i had to combine them with another hive. when i was able to find a queen cell i split the hive up and was more or less back on track.