Drones in winter

[Dalon]

Hi all,
Just a quick question for those in the Sydney area. I've been abroad for 5 weeks and was anxious to see how the girls were doing. Observing my 2 hives this weekend I noticed drones coming and going - approximately 5 per minute, compared to 50 workers per minute. I don't want to do an inspection to avoid stress, it also gets down to 7 degrees centigrade at night and around 18 in the day.

Looking at reference material there seems to be little on drones at this time of year, even in temperate areas. I see 3-4 different types of pollen coming in, even though the local area is sparse - I can see some gums in bloom. With this early flowering, is it possible they are already starting their spring build up? I expected another month or two of winter lock down....

[PhilK]

As far as I know, if a hive has plenty of stores and thinks they can afford to have drones they'll keep them around. They drag drones out etc if they don't have enough stores, so maybe it's a good sign to see drones?

[Dalon]

Thanks Phil, that was my thinking also. Just seems strange based on where we are in the season. They're bringing in a lot of resources for the 4-5 hours we have of sunshine so I'll take this as a good sign for spring.... I'll check them for queen cups in a few weeks, once the days get a little warmer.