Drone Comb

[Dunkel]

I have never done a cut out of a natural occurring hive.  For those that have, compared to worker comb, about what percentage is drone size?

[Perry]

I would say less than 10%, probably closer to 5%. Each hive is different though, depending on what the hive needs. In the spring they may want lots of drones, in the fall not so much.

[Dunkel]

I was just wondering.  Seems like around here in the spring they use any opportunity to draw drone cells.  I was thinking of trying some foundationless frames, but I thought I may wait.  I have some ready for second deeps and want to get some drawn. I may do a few in between some pulled and see how it goes.

[iddee]

During swarm season they will have approx. 17 percent drone larva. That is nearly 1 of every 5 cells through the whole hive. In a cold winter, they will have 0 drone larva. The remainder of the year varies.

[Jen]

Dunkel, this year I have a lot of drone cells and drones running around in all the hives, maybe 20% plus. At first I was a little alarmed and then a bee comrad that lives in the same side of town as I do was commenting on all the swarms he was being called for. So he has now caught 29 swarms in about 6 weeks. It occured to me that all these swarms have queens, but some will have virgin queens. I did some thinking  :eusa_think: and it occured to me that my hives may be making drones for other hives' swarms in the area as well.

All together, I had 5 swarms, that I know of, and comrad has caught 29 swarms... makes sense to me that all the hives in town are upping their drone population to accomodate many needy queens.

[apisbees]

The answer to this question will depend on how long the feral colony has been there, the configuration of the space and the volume of the space. The first priority of a swarm will be worker comb,
Iin a vertical space the bees will start at the top and work down building worker cells fro brood the combs near the outside will be constructed for the storage of honey and the bees will make the cell size the larger drone brood size. And as the brood emerges and the cells get back filled with honey the bees will continue drawing worker cells iin the center with drown size on the out side for honey storage and drone brood.
In a horizontal space the first constructed brood nest will be mostly worker cells and when the outer combs away from the cluster get drawn for honey the bees generally draw them to the large cell size for the storage of honey due to less wax being required to draw out the comb.
The newer the feral colony the less the amount of drone comb will have been built. With the increase of population and storage of honey and comb being drawn for the storage of honey will increase the amount of drone size cells. as the colony or colonies inhabit a feral location for mutable years, area's of comb damages or torn down and repaired by the bees will in most cases be filled with drone comb.
with is being said it is not the amount of comb that is the larger drone size but what percentage of it is the bees allowing the queen to lay in. If the bees in the colony do not want the drowns they will cannibalize the eggs and larva. In any colony the amount of drones tolerated depends on the time of year and the conditions in your area.
I didn't answer you question but hopefully helped in the understanding of feral hive dynamics.

[Dunkel]

Thanks everyone for the input, lots to think about. Apis, that explains a lot of the drone size cells in my supers.