lots and lots of drone brood

Kathyp · April 25, 2010, 05:46:57 PM

wish i'd taken a camera out. finally decided to check out my hives. started pulling frames and there was drone brood everywhere. my heart sank. i just knew i had a failing queen or laying workers. next frame and the brood pattern was fine. went through the other hives and found the same. i have NEVER seen so much drone brood in any of my hives! they are pretty full, so after this bit of bad weather i think i'll swipe some frames from each and make a new hive.....unless they swarm first.......no queen cells that i saw, but didn't go to the bottom of each.

Jahjude · April 25, 2010, 07:02:50 PM

Oooh,that's sad Kathy :( I can literally feel your pain.Haven't been able to make checks as often as u'd like huh??

Kathyp · April 25, 2010, 07:22:15 PM

bad weather and busy schedule. i think they are ok. popped honey supers on them to give them more room. we'll see what happens.

we had a warmish spring and they expanded more rapidly than usual.

David LaFerney · April 25, 2010, 09:36:26 PM

I'm on the other end of the country, but I'm seeing (looks to me like) a lot of drone brood too. Out of about 14 medium frames of brood 3-4 of drone brood. Lots of drones already flying too. The same hive has 2 - 8 frame medium supers 3/4 full of new honey though. Our weather has been pretty excellent since the first of April.

Sparky · April 25, 2010, 10:53:47 PM

On the up side of all that drone cells is you didn't have to put a drone cell frame in the hive to get them filled up to control the mites. Huh ?

Kathyp · April 25, 2010, 11:59:15 PM

not that i do that :-D

i am heavily into lazy beekeeping. KISS.

David LaFerney · April 26, 2010, 09:48:24 AM

My foundationless frames of drone brood aren't 100%. I'm loath to freeze them as long as there is any worker brood on them, but It might be the best thing to do. Actually the best thing to do might be to get some drone foundation to use for that. It sure looks like there will be an awful lot of drones after it hatches though.

Kathyp · April 26, 2010, 12:30:42 PM

given the number of swarm calls i'm getting, it looks like it's going to be a good reproductive year for bees around here. so far, the swarms have been pretty big. maybe the drone number has something do do with it. more virgin queens need more drones......

harvey · April 26, 2010, 03:55:30 PM

I am hoping to catch a couple of ferrel swarms this year, I have my fingers crossed. I will put them on foundationless to if they will let me. Question though. I just bought two packages. I didn't see drones but would there be drones in them when you get them?

David LaFerney · April 26, 2010, 04:04:45 PM

Quote from: kathyp on April 26, 2010, 12:30:42 PM
given the number of swarm calls i'm getting, it looks like it's going to be a good reproductive year for bees around here. so far, the swarms have been pretty big. maybe the drone number has something do do with it. more virgin queens need more drones......

I bet that's it. Think about it - if the conditions are great for swarming then the colonies that produce the most drones are the ones that are most likely to reproduce through the male line. When there aren't many swarms then lots of drones are just a bunch of maladaptive mouths to feed.

msully · April 26, 2010, 04:54:53 PM

Kathy,

I'm just across the river from you and I noticed a lot of drone brood, but mostly on the foundationless frames that I let them draw. I thought perhaps it was because of the foundationless frames or perhaps the time of year. Those frames were 2/3 drone comb!

Mike

Kathyp · April 26, 2010, 05:29:36 PM

harvey, maybe a few, but there shouldn't be many. you don't need/want them in a package.

Michael Bush · April 27, 2010, 12:56:09 AM

20% would be normal this time of year. More is probably a problem...

Kathyp · April 27, 2010, 01:01:19 AM

i would have thought that, but found the same in all hives. it was easily 20% maybe more. certainly more than i have seen in past years. i will keep an eye on them. guess all hives could go bad at once :(

David LaFerney · April 27, 2010, 08:48:42 AM

Quote from: Michael Bush on April 27, 2010, 12:56:09 AM
20% would be normal this time of year. More is probably a problem...

What kind of problem would it be? In my case the center frames are pretty much full of worker brood and the drone brood is all toward the outside just like you would expect with good solid patterns. Just a lot of drone brood. Maybe there isn't as much percentage wise as I think.