Scene: 80F and overcast, second nice day after three days and two nights of rain. Before the hard rain we had a good flow going (avg 5 lbs/day weight gain on a strong hive).
In front of a strong hive, I saw a lot of bees crawling on the grass. When I looked closer (my head in the flight path), they're all drones. They're not obviously dying but they're not exactly chipper either.
What might be going on?
I'm thinking:
> drones kicked out as part of swarm prep?
> some sort of contamination or pesticide?
> mites? I didn't see k-wing or other obvious mite related symptoms.
And I haven't done any sugar rolls yet this year, but from observations of drone brood, I'm expecting them to be pretty loaded.
Any other ideas?
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I just split my observation hive before they started to swarm. As it turned out the queen cups had eggs and have now turned into queen cells.
The bees have been removing the drone larvae for the last 2 days.
If the bees do not have the resources or enough young bees to fee them, the will get rid of them.
Jim
Quote from: sawdstmakr on May 01, 2017, 10:52:13 PM
I just split my observation hive before they started to swarm. As it turned out the queen cups had eggs and have now turned into queen cells.
The bees have been removing the drone larvae for the last 2 days.
If the bees do not have the resources or enough young bees to fee them, the will get rid of them.
Jim
So you think swarm prep is a reasonable cause? The hive In question is double deep with three medium supers and slam full of bees.
They did not start removing the drones until after the split. Most swarms have lots of drones in them.
For some reason the bees do not think they can provide the extra resources to feed them.
Jim