I have two hives that are overrun with drones. Both hives also have more foundationless frames in them than the others...is there a connection? What am I doing wrong?
What is a overrun with drones 10% 50% ???
Do you have queen cells ???
Do you have vrgin queens ???
Do you have a drone laying queen ???
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
It's all about quantifying... 20% this time of year would be normal...
Quote from: Jim 134 on June 18, 2010, 07:12:11 AM
What is a overrun with drones 10% 50% ???
I'd say it's a solid 25%
Do you have queen cells ???
No
Do you have vrgin queens ???
Don't think so, but not sure.
Do you have a drone laying queen ???
She seems to lay a lot of drone eggs, but not exclusively, there are a few frames with just worker cells in it.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Quote from: Michael Bush on June 18, 2010, 08:49:06 AM
It's all about quantifying... 20% this time of year would be normal...
didn't know that, my other hives don't have nearly as many drones, not even close.
I have six hives that are all foundation less. Just finished inspecting. I see eggs and larva in all of them cept one i started from a nuc? I also see a lot of drone comb. More than what I saw last year in one hive that had foundation. However along with the drone comb is a lot of worker cells capped. Looks a lot different on their own comb though. less uniform as far as where the drone cells are.
Drones drift, so the number of drones is more related to how many the hive will tolerate than how many they raised. A queenless hive or one with a virgin will tolerate more than a queenright hive with a laying queen. Still I would look. You shouldn't seem more than 20% drone cells and those should start dropping off over the next month (at least in my climate).
If the hives have queen cells or vrgin queens drones will come for up to 35 miles away.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)