Lots of Drones

PhilK · August 17, 2016, 10:35:09 PM

Hey guys, just did some inspections the other day and noticed one of my hives had a lot more drones than the others. There was space for the queen to lay, and no swarm cells. Should I be worried they'll swarm or is it just an increase in drones because it's spring and the flow is good?

Honeycomb king · August 18, 2016, 12:31:01 AM

How many are you calling lots?
How large is the hive and brood area etc?
Try to give a bit more detail on description so as our advice is accurate.
What is the flow?
How many pollen sources?
Is the queen laying in drone cells because they are in the current brood nest?

PhilK · August 18, 2016, 04:03:52 AM

I would say 20-25% of bees but didn't count, they just seemed to be everywhere.
Hive is 10 fr deeps - one brood and one super, separated by QX. Brood is hand span in the middle of brood frames with honey around edges - middle frames less honey, outside frames more.
Bringing pollen in and a good frame with one side filled mostly with pollen. No idea how many pollen sources but at least 2 different colours coming in.
The queen is obviously laying in drone cells as there are drones and drone larvae, but there are also workers and worker larvae so I'm not worried about a LW.

Honeycomb king · August 18, 2016, 07:07:23 AM

So now have I made you ask enough questions to start to answer your own question.
I'm not sure of the answer, but it's you who is looking at the hive.

To me it sounds like a faulty queen. ..but.. at a time that you want to expand your apiary. You have a hive that is full of breeding stallions. Start to plan your splits or even to start grafting your Owen queens.

Michael Bush · August 18, 2016, 08:42:44 AM

As long as there are plenty of flat capped worker brood I would not worry about how many drones there are. If there is nothing but drone brood, you have a problem.

PhilK · August 18, 2016, 10:18:27 PM

Thanks MB - lots of drones but lots of worker brood too, so not too worried now. I was more just curious as to why this might be the case. This hive didn't have any drones in it all winter so unless they superseded the queen with a drone layer I'm pretty confident it's not a shoddy queen

rawfind · October 12, 2016, 01:27:39 AM

Quote from: PhilK on August 18, 2016, 10:18:27 PM
Thanks MB - lots of drones but lots of worker brood too, so not too worried now. I was more just curious as to why this might be the case. This hive didn't have any drones in it all winter so unless they superseded the queen with a drone layer I'm pretty confident it's not a shoddy queen

have you seen her royal highness in your inspections ?