Author Topic: Drone Ladened Hive  (Read 2197 times)

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Offline Jen

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Drone Ladened Hive
« on: May 06, 2022, 02:30:34 pm »
This season I have taken over the care of two hives in town. When I walked up to one of the hives I saw many drones at the entrance. Uh Oh.... And yes the hive is queenless, no capped brood/larvae/eggs. There are plenty of bees to save the hive, and the present bees have not turned into laying workers yet.

I want to requeen pronto, but need to get rid of hundreds of drones.

How do I get rid of all the drone, or most anyway?
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2022, 03:05:57 pm »
Dress like a queen and run past the hive.  ;D
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
Henry David Thoreau
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Offline iddee

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2022, 03:13:48 pm »
Place a frame of open brood in it and requeen. The workers will do the rest.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2022, 09:32:40 pm »
 :laugh:  Zweefer! I Don't Have Any Pheromone Anymore!  :laugh:
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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2022, 10:48:56 pm »
Iddee "Place a frame of open brood in it and requeen. The workers will do the rest."

Not capped brood... But open brood? What would that do? Would the bees cannibalize that open brood?
 


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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2022, 06:58:14 am »
I’m guessing open brood means the need for supplies. Supplies they can no longer afford to give to mooching drones.
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2022, 07:31:29 am »
Another guess. I think open brood would have more brood pheromone than capped.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein
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Offline RAST

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2022, 08:12:19 am »
Curious Jen how you know they don't have laying workers.

Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2022, 11:40:47 am »
Hi Rast, I'm a very thorough inspector, I can spot an egg a mile away. On a sunny day, after examining every single frame in a 3 high box, there are no eggs.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2022, 11:46:39 am »
Zweefer "I’m guessing open brood means the need for supplies. Supplies they can no longer afford to give to mooching drones."

Interesting. This hive is void of food. Feeding w/pollen patty just to keep the bees going until I get a queen in there. The open brood was something I haven't heard of before. Cool Idea!

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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #10 on: May 07, 2022, 11:49:33 am »
Iddee "Another guess. I think open brood would have more brood pheromone than capped."

I like your guess, guesses in beekeeping is called intuition  :)

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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #11 on: May 07, 2022, 12:11:31 pm »
Iddee when you say 'Let the workers do the rest'

To that: this means that the bees will kill off the excess drones. That is A Lot of stinkin' drones, and will take too much time while the drones are still being fed by the bees, a good many of them anyway.

I think this is my plan: take each frame, several at a time, out into the field and bang the bees and drones off of the frames. Remember that the frames are void of any brood/larvae/eggs. Return the frames to the hive. The bees will return to the hive quicker than the drones, giving me time to pinch the excess drones.

Then reduce the hive to 2 boxes. Insert a frame of open brood or as close to that as I can find. Intro a queen.

What do ya think?
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Offline iddee

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #12 on: May 07, 2022, 01:18:06 pm »
"The bees will return to the hive quicker than the drones,""

What makes you think that?

Why do you think the workers will feed the drones once they know they are queenrite?  They won't need them any more and will boot them.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #13 on: May 07, 2022, 01:53:30 pm »
Good morning Iddee, I've seen this process happen about 5 years ago. I watched the whole event of banging the bees off of the frames. The bees lifted up more readily than the drones and flew back to the hive, the drones layed around, walked in the grass for a bit before fly off.

I think, and I usually get into trouble when I start to think :)... that the drones are heavier and more lazy than the worker bees, takes them longer to helicopter back to the hive. Which would give me time to dispatch a lot of the drones.

It makes sense to me.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #14 on: May 07, 2022, 04:01:08 pm »
To each his own.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein

Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2022, 08:06:28 pm »


Why do you think the workers will feed the drones once they know they are queenrite?  They won't need them any more and will boot them.

If you get this colony queen right and there isn't any food stores, I agree with iddee!  We need a big boot emoji!

Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #16 on: May 08, 2022, 11:17:43 am »
The open brood will help suppress laying workers and get them back on track.  EGGS if your going to let them raise a queen or just get a queen to introduce.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #17 on: May 09, 2022, 12:15:03 am »
Hi Lazy, I am a fan of letting bees make their own queens. But in this case I'm going to requeen prob next weekendor sooner if it isn't still snowing... for cryin out loud. There is virtually no capped brood/larvae/eggs. In upper northern CA, the weather is getting so extreme that it takes up to 6 weeks to get a queen mated and laying. So new queen for sure.

Think I'll put in a frame of open brood and an additional frame of capped brood if the other hive can afford it. The capped brood would be 6,000 more bees pronto.

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Offline iddee

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #18 on: May 09, 2022, 05:10:10 am »
Now that would be a definite boost if it's available.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein

Offline Jen

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Re: Drone Ladened Hive
« Reply #19 on: May 09, 2022, 12:01:49 pm »
Praying, hoping, meditating, oooming, drumming, singing to the sun  ;)
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