Storage of Drone Combs Over Winter

1of6 · September 03, 2008, 01:03:43 PM

I have a lot more drone combs built up at this point, I guess nearly twice as many as the number of hives. I thought about storing these over winter, and it occurred to me to just try storing them in the outside positions in their own hives if the room is available. One should be able to move it to the outside after they stop raising drones, right?

Has anyone seen any negative impacts from doing this?

NWIN Beekeeper · September 03, 2008, 05:45:00 PM

I think that I would be more comfortable with putting them in a super on top of the hive.

I would be more secure with making sure that boxes that are full of stores for the winter instead of empty combs.

We can get into winter hive dynamics and that they probably won't move to the outside frames but rather upward, but I have had winter clusters move in more funny directions than I can speculate. I'd just rather be safe than cleaning out a starved dead-out next spring.

1of6 · September 04, 2008, 09:53:23 AM

That's the thing...drone combs shouldn't be empty this time of year, or at least that's not what I've seen in the fall. Is that what you're seeing with yours? Mine get backfilled with honey, and stop being used for raising drone brood.

Michael Bush · September 04, 2008, 11:16:45 PM

This time of year I'd expect them to get backfilled, probably. I still see a lot of drone brood in some of my hives.

1of6 · September 05, 2008, 12:30:51 AM

Quote from: Michael Bush on September 04, 2008, 11:16:45 PM
This time of year I'd expect them to get backfilled, probably. I still see a lot of drone brood in some of my hives.

Yes, I think my hives catch ShrinkingBroodnestAsitis (SBA) in the fall. ;) I've spent this summer drawing a lot of new comb out for supers and I think I'm paying that price for only having 60% as many supers as I should. Except for the strongest colonies, the drone combs are looking a smidgin spotty in terms of drone brood, but are getting pretty heavy with all those backfilled cells.

Is it a safe bet to shift them to the outside positions for the winter? I'd like to not have them in the target spring cluster area until I'm ready to start using them again.

Thank you very much [everyone] for your time and your responses!

Michael Bush · September 05, 2008, 08:45:16 PM

>Is it a safe bet to shift them to the outside positions for the winter?

That's what I would do.

Brian D. Bray · September 06, 2008, 10:52:13 PM

Drone comb makes very good storage comb for overwintering. Don't let them go to waste.