They did NOT swarm

[2Sox]

Not question here; just an observation.  But comments welcome.

I was lucky this year beacause I caught them in time. I "opened the brood" nests in all the colonies - The technique that Michael Bush describes in detail in his online book -  and had no swarm issue. Then I went in a checkerboarded the honey supers. Then an interesting thing happened that I hadn?t ever seen before - and it was easier to see because I have all my colonies in my back yard on concrete.  They were dumping out thousands of drones all over the ground. Just didn?t need them anymore, I guess.

I also pulled out many - not all - of the drone combs from all the colonies. Wasn?t sure if this helped anything though.

*The post has been modified to give much deserved credit to Michael Bush.

[The15thMember]

I have had several colonies dump their drones this spring at different times.  Sometimes it's adults, sometimes it's pulled pupae, sometimes both.  I'm not sure if my swarming or non-swarming colonies were the ones who were doing it. 

[Ben Framed]

Did y'all happen to check these drone larva or pupa for signs of mites?

Phillip

[The15thMember]

Did y'all happen to check these drone larva or pupa for signs of mites?

Phillip

Not specifically, although I did look the one pile over just to be sure everything seemed normal with the drones and it did.  I didn't see any mites, deformed wings, etc., although all I did was a cursory visual inspection.   

[Ben Framed]

The15thMember
sometimes it's pulled pupae

The pulled pupae would be my interest. Does anyone here know if Varro Destructor will leave pulled pupae once that pupae has been pulled?

Phillip

[Michael Bush]

The number of drones tolerated is directly proportional to the resources coming in.  When nothing is coming in, they eject drones.  You probably just finished your flow and hit a dearth.