drones again

Kathyp · August 06, 2011, 08:03:17 PM

some of us had noticed that the drones were being kicked out. it seemed early to me. today i noticed that my observation hive is making drone cells again. this hive is getting pretty full so i was concerned that they might swarm late and leave me queenless.

wondered if anyone who had lost their drones noticed them back again. especially anyone from my area....where finally we are having something like summer.

Larry Bees · August 06, 2011, 10:24:36 PM

I'm not in your area, but I have noticed more drones now than I have seen all year. Last year I had some of my hives swarm in September. I am now expecting to see swarm cells at anytime. Larry

windfall · August 06, 2011, 10:45:08 PM

The hives here have been tossing them out like mad for the last couple weeks. But I have not seen any new drones or capped drone brood lately.

Kathyp · August 06, 2011, 11:32:05 PM

mine were tossed quite a while back. i was surprised to see them in the observation hive again. after i knocked off the old queen and the new one got to laying, they have rapidly expanded. she's an awesome queen and i am afraid they may get crowded before she backs off. no sign of swarm cells yet, but the new drone cells are an interesting development.

these observation hives are fantastic. i can get a good idea of conditions in all my hives by seeing what this hive is doing.

sc-bee · August 07, 2011, 05:59:00 PM

>these observation hives are fantastic. i can get a good idea of conditions in all my hives by seeing what this hive is doing.

Just curious Kathy, do you think conditions in your observation hive even come close to paralleling you other hives?

Kathyp · August 07, 2011, 07:07:19 PM

not completely, but i can see how much they are bringing in and when they start backing off brood production. i would not substitute the observations for inspections, but i sure can get a heads up when things start to change out there. + i get to see things i would never see in the outdoor hive, like the bees seeming to teach the new queen her business when she was newly mated.

affreux · August 07, 2011, 08:43:07 PM

Two TB's side by side, both about the same amount of stores, one is dragging drones out by the ears; the other not.

Vance G · August 08, 2011, 01:52:48 AM

Here in Northern Montana, drones still plentiful and still emerging. No sign of swarming and bees are this years Carniolan nucs. Must be my charming personality and providing lots of room keeping them around.

windfall · August 23, 2011, 08:30:41 AM

I know this thread is getting old, but yesterday I went through one of the hives and found most/half of a frame of capped drone. It was only in one hive and it struck me as odd since the other hives have been tossing out the adult drones for 3+ weeks now.

Admittedly this was all on a frame of drone cells that they built out in spring when I first shifted to foundationless, but it got moved to the outside quite awhile ago and I thought they would use it for storage this time of year. Everything else looks normal and fine with plenty of capped worker brood elsewhere.

Is capped drone brood this late normal? Does it tell me anything? or is this just "one of those things"?