Honeybees and dragon flies

[wtiger]

I was just wondering how much of a nuisance dragonflies are too honeybees.  I know that they will catch them and eat them.  I've seen it happen, but how many honeybees will a dragonfly eat on average?  I'm asking; because this is my first year beekeeping and there seems to be more dragonflies on my property than I've ever seen before in my life.  I went outside earlier and there were literally hundreds of them flying all over my property.  Has anyone else noticed something similar?  Is this a potential problem or just a coincidence?

[MrILoveTheAnts]

If the dragonflies have a sense of taste they shouldn't even bother with your bees. Workers and Queens taste awful and is why birds normally stay away form them. Drones on the other hand tend to taste great (not that I've tried either) and will be eaten by birds and predators.

I have never herd of dragonflies destroying a hive before.

[Understudy]

http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/lsn17.html
Dragonflies do eat honey bees but they are not voracious eaters and they are generally solitary creatures. Think of them more as population control that a threat to the hive.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Robo]

  I went outside earlier and there were literally hundreds of them flying all over my property.  Has anyone else noticed something similar?  Is this a potential problem or just a coincidence?

I have the same thing here for about a week in the Fall.   If you go outside in the late afternoon, it is just a cloud of dragonflies.  In fact, there are so many of them you can actually hear them colliding in mid-air.  Not sure if it is a mating thing or what, but only lasts for a few days.  I have never noticed any issues with the bees.

[Michael Bush]

I haven't noticed a big loss of bees from them, but I have noticed queens not returning when there are a lot of them around.

[ipana04]

I'm late to this forum and to this topic. (by about 12yrs). However in my quest to find if there are similar experiences to mine, I found this post and joined the site! Dragonfly's swarm by the hundreds on my property from mid-summer into the fall. What variety is not known to me other than they're the size of sparrows and wiped out my hive.  I'm surrounded by water and have two swamps on my land, which are breeding grounds for all types of pests including black flies and mosquitos, so I welcome the arrival of our aerial assault force. I've posted signs about not eating the bees but they haven't clued in yet. (300 million years and they still can't follow a simple request)

[BeeMaster2]

I have a lot of dragonflies at my farm at my house. I have a real problem with doing splits and keeping hives going after they swarm. The queens do not make it back from their maiden flights. My observation hive swarmed and a new queen developed but it never came home.
The queens are bigger and much slower than the bees so they are pretty easy targets.

I have eaten several drones. They taste like honey butter when you get them out of the hive. They are pretty bland when return from the field and have empty stomachs.
Jim

[jalentour]

Does anyone know if drones are on the Adkins Menu?  I'm constantly looking for variety.

[KeyLargoBees]

Solid protein BAYBEE.....not sure you will fine it in any of the carb listing books though ;-)