Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Beekeeping 101 => Topic started by: Dunkel on March 18, 2014, 08:57:41 pm
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I checked twenty or so hives this evening. Put some syrup on some of the light ones, supposed to be fifties and sixties for the next several days. Almost all had worker brood or at least larva of various stages.
One hive still had plenty of stores and some capped worker brood but not a lot. Several drone and drone larva in drone cells. I saw the queen but not a frame with brood. She's a June queen and I was very pleased going into winter with her. Is she just ramping up drone production? Poorly mated? Swarm preps?
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Hey Dunkle ~ I checked my hive the day before mine swarmed, tons of drone cells. Then two days later I was in again checking queen cells, and the bees are building more and more drone cells. FYI
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our winter are mild here although we still get bouts of cold weather. coming out of most winter I am GUESSING at about 5% of my hives come into the spring time as drone laying queens.... these can be a real problem in the 1) there is still an existing queen with a good pheromone scent so the worker do not seem in any hurry to replace here and 2) she has either ran out or will quickly run out of any properly fertilized eggs with which to make a proper replacement.
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Thanks for stirring up my fears you two. :o Just kidding, that's what I was thinking as well. I think I will check them in another week, during the next warm up, which ever comes first. I may have to snag another frame after I remove her, from another hive,
I caught a couple too late last year and had to fight laying workers and have queens made. To beat it all after I got them lined out they were two of the three that got stole.
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Uh Oh! does this mean I may have a problem in the mother hive? Cause that's were I found so many drone cells, and balls of drone cells like the size of an egg. I was going to leave both hives alone for awhile since the swarm incident. When should I get into the mother hive to check this out?
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Take a 2 week vacation, jaybird, and relax. Two weeks from now check both hives and look at all the new eggs and larva.
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Iddee ""Take a 2 week vacation, jaybird, and relax. Two weeks from now check both hives and look at all the new eggs and larva.""
Thanks Iddee, I will do that! I will try my hardest to do that! :D
However, I am working on my 2000th post.... so.....
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Take your laptop with you. The vacation is from bees only. You're not excused from the forum. :P :D
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:P :D Back Atcha Baby! ;) 8)
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Just a thought to throw in the mix here. By supplying worker size foundation we force the bees to rear more workers than they like. In a foundationless setup they raise somewhere between 20 and 30 % drones. Seems like a waste to us, but that is how a queen gets to spread her genetics. So what you may perceive as too much drone brood may actually be more like the natural proportion.
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Take the camera with you Jen, let us see what you are talking about!
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Pistol- ""Just a thought to throw in the mix here. By supplying worker size foundation we force the bees to rear more workers than they like. In a foundationless setup they raise somewhere between 20 and 30 % drones. Seems like a waste to us, but that is how a queen gets to spread her genetics. So what you may perceive as too much drone brood may actually be more like the natural proportion. ""
I like this! :)
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PistolPete is knowledgeable and well read up and studied for a third year beek.
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thanks Apis. quite a bit of what I know comes from your posts:). Unfortunately, it seems that the more I read the less I know. Or at least the more I read the more I realise that I dont know nearly enough. Even more annoying is the fast that my bees dont read the same books I do.
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We have to realize that bees are a lot like plants. Not only do they rely on then for their existent, but are effected by their environment. Bees and plants are both influenced by the weather getting warmer in the spring. A crop needs can be calculated in to a cretin numbers of hours of sunlight and heat units to mature. Bees also require the sunny warm days to take advantage of the bloom that is available. Around here the golf courses are just opening for the season, last year they were open 3 weeks ago. The plants are behind, the bees are behind, but both are progressing along together in unison. As a beekeeper we need to adjust our calendar to come in synch with that of natures and the bees. Every year can produce different challenges from the year before so we need to adapt our practices to adapt to the changing conditions.
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Good bit of educational advice there Apis :)
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I know gardeners some who plant by the date on the calender and others that plant by the soil temperature. The guys that plant by the early calender dates some times need to replant because of seeds rotting of seedlings freezing. Sometimes we tend to try and push the seasons, it's a gamble sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, and at times it ends up being a disaster
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My daughter is an avid gardener, facebook site Here We Grow. She has as much book knowledge.. as disaster knowledge. That is what makes a good gardener ~
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My daughter is an avid gardener, facebook site Here We Grow. She has as much book knowledge.. as disaster knowledge. That is what makes a good gardener ~
Endeavor to persevere! ;)
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A little update on that hive. Still capped drone brood, little scattered uncapped, and one big beautiful capped queen cell near the top of a frame. No others seen. At least they have a fighting chance. I was very, very gentle with that one :)
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Apis can be blunt at times, but there is knowledge and wisdom to be gained by reading what he types. ;D
Sounds like the bees have the situation under control!!
It has often amazed me at how worried I was about a particular hive, only to find out the bees were already correcting the problem by the time I decided something had to be done.
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yep you better watch that Apisbee LazyBkpr.... like an injun he can creep up on ya' when you least expect it.
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No worries!! When I scream like a girl it usually gives me time to escape while they laugh!!
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Scott- "It has often amazed me at how worried I was about a particular hive, only to find out the bees were already correcting the problem by the time I decided something had to be done."
I Am Getting That! Really! Really And Truly! :)
However, us beginners can still get obsessive when the new situations arrive. My current situation with my wonderlust girls is that.... I Really Don't Want To Hike Up That (expletive ) Bank Again To Retrieve Yet Another Swarm! So I'm constantly looking out the window waiting to shed the jammies and throw on the jeans and tank and run around like a lunitic ~ :D