Why so many drones?

Cindi · April 09, 2007, 11:55:59 AM

This is a question that has come to my mind many times and I keep forgetting to ask.

I am a small hobbiest beekeeper. I do not have any intention to have ever any more than 15 hives and my preference would be to maintain about 10.

Why is there so much talk about the requirements of so many drones in the apiary? If you have young queens, healthy stock, why worry about the need for so many drones? I understand the need for some drones, in case of the demise of a queen, but I really do not understand the need to have hundreds of drones around, eating food and just hanging around, just in case there may be a queen to go out to mate.

Can anyone provide a reasonable answer that will clear this thought in my mind? Have a wonderful day, and good health. Cindi

LocustHoney · April 09, 2007, 12:58:03 PM

I will give it a try. The way I understand it is that the drones are raised for other hives. NOT their own. The queen of a hive will not mate with the drones of her hive. It all hives had young queens then they would not raise drones. Thus, if a new queen was raised whom would she mate with. She needs drones from other hives. This would help against extinction. I am no expert but this is what I have been told. :-D

Understudy · April 09, 2007, 01:10:38 PM

Quote from: Cindi on April 09, 2007, 11:55:59 AM
This is a question that has come to my mind many times and I keep forgetting to ask.

I am a small hobbiest beekeeper. I do not have any intention to have ever any more than 15 hives and my preference would be to maintain about 10.

Why is there so much talk about the requirements of so many drones in the apiary? If you have young queens, healthy stock, why worry about the need for so many drones? I understand the need for some drones, in case of the demise of a queen, but I really do not understand the need to have hundreds of drones around, eating food and just hanging around, just in case there may be a queen to go out to mate.

Can anyone provide a reasonable answer that will clear this thought in my mind? Have a wonderful day, and good health. Cindi

Drones are also the sign of a healthy hive. They also provide genetic diversity for other hives that are not yours. Also no matter what you do you will have a certain percentage of drones. That is the nature of bees.

Michael says it very well right here:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm

Also one more shocking thing for you. The drones may not even be from your hive. Drones get free access to any hive. So they come and go as they please where they please. I guess it is the vip treatment they get for having to sacrifice their lives if they actually manage to mate with a virgin queen.

So you can cut out all your drone comb and you will still have them. Just because you have bees.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

tig · April 10, 2007, 01:01:37 AM

i'd be very happy if i had a lot of drones because it means my hives are strong and healthy and have adequate stores. you wont find drones in a weak box except if the queen becomes a drone layer.

if you wanted to maintain 10 or 15 boxes and suddenly found several boxes queenless or with lousy queens, you would want to get new queens. having a lot of drones around would better the chances of getting a properly mated queen.

Cindi · April 10, 2007, 09:26:35 AM

These are good answers that have satisfied my curiosity. Thanks. Have a wonderful day, healthy life. Cindi

lively Bee's · April 10, 2007, 02:03:44 PM

We open mate queens and use a drone frame installed in feral stock hives in order to up the genetics in the yard. I feel imbreeding is a problem in small yards. My self and anohter beekeep swap some hives around in order to mix up the yards. Now if you order mated queens then you have no need to worry about extra drones. The higher drone count the better chance the queens have for mateing.

BeeLady · April 12, 2007, 04:45:54 PM

We have so many Africanized colonies in our area (proven by our local A & M) that I am very leery of having my bees raise their own queens. My one hive that supersceded their store-bought queen in the fall has gotten quite mean; I can't do quiet gardening 30 feet from the hive.

I envy you folks who don't to worry about the African bees. I reviewed Michael Bush's article about splits, swarming and feral hives and he indicated that some feral hives are mean (not in Africanized bee areas). I have three feral hives on my property, one over seven years old. We can mow, weed wack and chain saw around it with no problem. Another one is fairly nice but the third you want to stay away from!

I have lots of drones and I don't mind 'em, but their not getting a mating job with either of my two hives!

Understudy · April 12, 2007, 05:54:56 PM

And if you could requeen that third feral hive. They would calm down.
Michael also had this article for requeening a hot hive.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesrequeeninghot.htm

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Cindi · April 13, 2007, 11:23:11 AM

Beelady, what a bummer about a hot hive eh? The need for working around colonies is important and if you can't do that within 30 feet of this hive, then this is a problem. Get rid of their queen. EEEKS!!! Then you would have to into that 30 foot circle to get there (LOLL).

We don't have AHB that are feral here. thank goodness, I wonder if they ever will find a way to evolve to stand the cold. Good luck with the meanies. HAve a wonderful, great day, good health. Cindi

tig · April 14, 2007, 12:36:56 AM

cindi im excited about your new nucs coming. i'm surious to know how those hawaiin queens turn out and can't wait for your post!

Cindi · April 14, 2007, 01:51:12 AM

Tig, thanks, I am pretty excited too. I have my one colony left that is marching along. I have babied these girls with a terrarium heater like Finsky advised, sytrofoam divider and made their hive only 6 frames, it helped them to keep warmer and I think it worked. I haven't checked them in while, just leaving them alone to figure things out and get strong. They seemed to be well on that way last time I looked and I would say that I saw about 7 full frames of bees (I run Langstroth deeps (10 frames). We'll see.

I will let all know how the Kona queens work out. The breeder told me that the Kona Italians really like to raise brood more than gather alot of honey. In my mind this year that is perfectly fine with me. Bring on the babies!!!! I am into raising huge colonies this year to get ready for a fabulous year of honey next year. Great aspirations and I believe that they will be manifest.

I have been so busy working outside to get our property ready for the summertime and bees that I haven't really had too much time to think about the bees coming, but I guess it is around three weeks now. Man, I have a lot of stuff to do. Oh well, it keeps me out of trouble. Have the wonderful, beautiful day, good health. Cindi