still seeing drones

[garys520]

I'm in Connecticut and I'm still seeing drones in a one of my healthy hives.   In mid September the girls were busy getting rid of the drones so is it common to still have some around or does it have something to do with the warmer weather and me feeding 2:1 sugar water up until last week?  Maybe the girls were confused. 

[Michael Bush]

Some hives keep drones longer than others. Some keep them all winter, but not all of the drones, just some of the drones.  Queenless hives are more prone to keep them than queen right hives.

[David LaFerney]

I'm still seeing drones too, but we've had extremely mild weather with only a couple of light/moderate frosts.

[msully]

I had drones all winter last year in one hive.  In spring I found out that I had a poorly mated queen, I replaced her and it took me all year to get it back up to strength!

[charlotte]

Believe it or not I actually saw a drone hanging around the outside of my Russian hive.  Still!  I would guess they still have a few inside as well.  We are expecting some snow here tomorrow...  This hive has been kind of sub par the whole year.  Lots of drones and a poorly mated queen I believe.  They did end up with enough stores & had a fair amount of bees.  By the time I really was convinced the queen was not that great, it was too late to requeen them... They were a late package, and I kept thinking that she just needed a little time to kick into gear.  Oh well.  So, hopefully they will make it thru winter & her majesty will be replaced come spring.   8-)

[David LaFerney]

This thread is yet one more reason to rear queens and keep some nucs as backup resources.