Excessive Drone population

[Fredster4]

Inspected my numerous hives and found one with an excessive drone population.  Perhaps as much as 5 times what I normally see.  Literally entire frames covered with them.  I don't care why, and I'm not worried about it because that hive had recently swarmed and the old queen is no longer in charge.  The current queen is young, recently mated, and doing her job quite nicely. However, the colony is still being theorectically dragged down by an excess of drones eating honey, etc.  I'd like to get rid of many of them.  I was wondering if anyone could see something wrong with the following strategy:  Wait until mid-day when many if not most drones are hanging out at the local DCA and place a queen excluder on the entrance.  At the end of the day, vacuum up all the drones clinging to the excluder covered entrance, remove excluder, go back to my margarita.  Problem solved?  Whadya think?

All the best,
Fred B

[Kathyp]

personally, i'd leave them.  i find that in some hives, and some years, more drones are produced for a short period of time.  bet if you check in another two weeks you'll find that there are fewer drone cells..as for the drones using up resources...i don't find that to be a big thing.  in fact, the last time i had a really big drone year, i also had the most honey off my hives.

it's up to you, but waiting is usually better than trying to "fix" the bees.

[Finski]

.
There is a rule ofthum in beehives if the colonylooses 20% ofits forging capacity, themhivewill notget surplus =to extract honey.

Loss reason are
1) if chalkbroof kills 20% of reared larvae
2) if inbreeding destroyes 20% of larvae
3) if varroa destroyes 20% of workers
4) if 20% of reared brood are drones and not workers, it is not capital of surpluss.

[Michael Bush]

Any drone you get rid of they will replace at a larger cost than what they would have eaten.

[Fredster4]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Michael,

This is more or less theoretical...but I like discussing the theoretical :)

Regarding your post, who do you think decides how many drones are raised, the workers or the queen?  The reason I ask is because the queen that laid the drone eggs is no longer presiding over the colony.  She left with the swarm.  I figured the new queen will have a more normalized approach which would be far fewer.  But if it's the workers that direct the queen's efforts and guide her to lay in drone cells, then obviously they will just raise a bunch if I was to get rid of them.

In my many hours of watching queens, this is not scientific, however, I swear she does what she wants and is not having her laying efforts directed in any way by workers.

All the best,
Fred Boucher

[BrentX]

I had a new queen that laid a bunch of drone initially.  Then she got it together.  This hive has been slow to build up so I am watching closely.  I an giving her another week before I make a decision.

[NasalSponge]

There are a lot of beekeepers, myself included, reporting above average drone populations this year.

[Michael Bush]

>Regarding your post, who do you think decides how many drones are raised, the workers or the queen?

The workers.

>  The reason I ask is because the queen that laid the drone eggs is no longer presiding over the colony.  She left with the swarm.  I figured the new queen will have a more normalized approach which would be far fewer.

They raise a lot of drones just before they swarm.  They drop off right after they swarm.  That's the usual rhythm of drone rearing.

>In my many hours of watching queens, this is not scientific, however, I swear she does what she wants and is not having her laying efforts directed in any way by workers.

The direct it by the comb they build, the cells the fill with a little nectar, the cells they don't and occasionally you see them lead the queen somewhere.

[FRAMEshift]

The direct it by the comb they build, the cells the fill with a little nectar, the cells they don't and occasionally you see them lead the queen somewhere.

And the workers decide which drone eggs survive based on which ones they eat.