drone and virgin question

Kathyp · July 13, 2007, 09:10:23 PM

a couple of weeks ago, i opened my biggest and best hive. i found only capped brood and a couple of queen cells. figured i'd leave them alone until i get back from CA next week.

today, i was watching from outside the hives just to see if things look ok before i leave. from the above mentioned hive, i noticed a fair number of drones coming and going. i also calculate that it is about time for a queen cell or two to hatch.

is there any correlation between the observance of drones and the hatching of new queens? are they hanging around to get first crack at her (so to speak)?

Moonshae · July 13, 2007, 09:23:19 PM

I didn't think drones would mate with one of their sisters?

Understudy · July 14, 2007, 01:10:53 AM

Drones freely move from hive to hive.
There may be something like a pheramone letting all the drones know that a mating flight may be soon in the works.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Michael Bush · July 17, 2007, 08:37:01 PM

A queenless hive will tolerate more drifting drones and the drones seem more attracted to them.

Kathyp · July 18, 2007, 02:26:25 PM

thanks guys. when the rain stops i'll go dig around in there and see what they have done. i'll be interested see if the drones might have been hanging out because of an impending queen hatching, or and continued queenlessness!

update

one cell is open, but looks ragged and is open from the underside. there are 3 cells that i did not see before. guess i'll wait a bit longer and see what happens.

BBHJ · July 18, 2007, 07:45:04 PM

Just about an hour ago I sit and watched the same thing happening with the hive I have in my back yard. I try to get atleast a few min. in of watching this hive everyday & this is the 1st time I've noticed this happening. I've had this hive since April. I was seening a drone either going in or comming out like every 5 seconds it seemed. This hive was queenless a couple of weeks ago. I assumed it had a queen last weekend though because of all the eggs that we saw even though we never seen her. Anyway just thought I would let you know that I'm seeing the same thing going on with my hive.

BEE C · July 19, 2007, 04:11:43 PM

I had a similar question. I have a frame of small cell on starter strip that is completely drones. I had queen cells and killed them all off, as the bees had started the process, tearing them open, and the old queen has a great laying pattern. We are in a bit of a slowdown with our flow here so, I assume the bees are pulling back on the swarm due to lack of flow, or else the queen killed the queen cells. I had read it was normal to get a frame of drones the first time they build off starter strips? I don't see drones as a bad thing because if they are needed they are there. Would the queen lay more drones because she knows they may be needed or is this because the bees made larger cells off the starter strip? Not all the starter strip frames were laid with drones some are honey, but they are the same larger cells. Does this tendency to larger cells go away? Will they always use that frame for drones? What should I be looking at doing with these sc drone frames? I thought of freezing it overnight and letting the bees clean it up?

Brian D. Bray · July 20, 2007, 11:34:00 PM

Bees build 4 sizes of honey comb cells. Queen cells, drone cells, storage cells, and worker brood cells. All but the queen cells are used for honey storage when they are not being used for their designed purpose. If you find the drone cells a problem just move them up into a honey super where the bees can fill it with honey and be harvested, hence removed from the hive.

Michael Bush · July 21, 2007, 09:58:11 AM

>Will they always use that frame for drones?

No. They will fill them with honey when they don't want drones. But this is also why I would move them to the outside edges of the brood nest. That way they can fill them with honey without a comb of honey breaking up the brood nest.

BEE C · July 22, 2007, 03:44:00 AM

This is the hive that is really strong and now they have built queen cells (open), in the last few days, on the frame with drones. Will move it out to start a colony once the queen cells are sealed. I squashed the last queen cells, and thought I had opened up the brood nest enough. Looks like the drones will hatch a few days before the queen cell so, im going to make a split, like I should have in the first place. Went in to look and there are some really nice combs off starter strips that I want to try making comb honey from for a friend. All in all, Im impressed with the starter strips, the bees seem to prefer building them out rather than the plastic pierco frames. Some nice brood combs and some nice honey comb. We are mid season so I think ill have some nice comb when it slows.