Drones - the lazy bums

Sometimes I get the feeling this is a common misconception: "Drones are just lazy bums - mating with the queen". No. Drones in a hive do not USUALLY mate with their own queen (sister) because they drift from hive to hive (I suppose there's room for an "oops"). Mating occurs in DRONE CONGREGATION AREAS - well away from the nest and high off the ground, out of site. Your virgin queen mates this one time - with SEVERAL (12-15) drones. She stores the sperm in her spermatheca and she SELECTIVELY lays either "fertilized eggs" (female workers) or "unfertilized eggs" (drones). If you watch your hive - you'll see that drones are departing the hive along with other workers - usually to return in the afternoon.

If by chance a drone would mate with his sister - a spotty brood pattern would likely result - it's not entirely understood if it's from a higher mortality rate of larvae and thereby removal by nurse bees.

Drones are an important part of the bee life cycle - not so important in YOUR hive...but important to OTHER hives.

Swarms

'tis the season when hives are cooking-up queens for swarming.  Swarming - nature's way of dividing the hive.  Good for the bees (go forth and multiply)....bad for the beekeeper interested in honey production (half your workforce disappears).

oh, how you learn and grow with your bees and your beekeeping hobby/habit...

I've "hived" 4 swarms in 3 days.  My Own!  I've got single deeps of bees all over the backyard - had to make an emergency run to the bee supplier for more"hardware".

As this is my third year as a keeper, having a LITTLE history...I can look at some of my methods/goals/objectives/preconceptions that have come and GONE.  As a first year - I had my "nose" in the box WAY TOO MUCH.  My second year goal was, "the bees know more about beekeeping than I do - interfere less".  My third year (THIS YEAR)......my goal is SWARM PREVENTION and understanding.

I've been reading some "alternative thought" about swarm prevention....and this is my CURRENT thought & question.  I had two whopping big hives come through winter with VERY little die off.  I thought that I "kept ahead" of the mother hive by splitting it early - but swarm cells were ALREADY created by the time I got to it (May 1!)....I really don't want to be cutting out perfectly good, natural queens.....how can I prevent SWARM CELL creation - how can I "get to" the bees BEFORE they even THINK about splitting?

One line of alternative thought is keeping the bees in 2.5 boxes(2 deeps & a super) - or 3 deeps!  Why do we think they MUST stay in 2 boxes?  If they want more room for brood production - why not give it to them?  Another thought process is the practice called, CHECKERBOARDING....which is alternating BROOD frames with EMPTY/honey frames. According to the practitioners of checkerboarding - it actually increases the hives brood production and "storing" desire - they get the feeling of much more "space" in the hive.

Honey production is a "by-product" of my hobby.  I can see where a honey producer might think - adding another deep - that's a lot of honey/storage that "I don't harvest".  But if you have MORE BEES - bees that don't leave - more workers = more honey....happy bees.

Going into the winter months with ALOT of bees is a good thing too.  Remember - the larger the cluster - the more likely they'll survive - they can more readily maintain the warmth of the cluster and MOVE for food resources....and with 3 boxes of food reserves?  When I "popped the top" of these two hives in April - the clusters were AT THE INSIDE COVER.

Hind-site being 20/20.  In the cases of my hives coming through winter as strong as they did.....they should have received another box after I did my hive body switch (putting the bottom "empty/eaten" frames on top of them).

Practitioners of "HIGH BEEHIVES (3 boxes) with a combination of the practice of CHECKERBOARDING" have reported that hives NATURALLY SUPERCEDE queens in the spring.  A much more CALM and natural way of the hive maintaining their OWN production.

The bees know more about beekeeping than we do - that's for SURE!  In the case of these two hives - I'm throwing out "MY NEED of 2 deeps" - I'm going to give these bees more space.

Practice Makes Perfect

An excellent point brought up at our Field Day....Practice "picking up your queen" with DRONES. Drones don't have a stinger - so you can handle them painlessly.

There may be a day when you need to handle your queen:

1. Putting her "away" for safe keeping while you're seriously messing with the hive.
2. Grabbing her and making sure she "goes in the right box" if you're splitting hives.
3. Grabbing her to "do away" with her

Queen Cells

My two backyard hives came through winter GANG BUSTERS this year. I noted a "slowing" of pollen the last couple of weeks...and last weekend's check confirms they're making queen cells - and LOTS of them! Swarm and Supercedure. Hive one was split last weekend. Hive two will be split as soon as I put together some empty frames (or I'm hoping to catch them if they swarm).

I opted to use an empty DEEP as my "nuc" for hive one's split. Yesterday, during the inspection of hive 3 (the new hive), I heard PIPING! (that's the newly emerged queen's "rally call") THAT WAS WAY COOL.

Here's a youtube link I found - where you can hear an example of PIPING. (looks like this guy was cutting queen cells out - there's a bunch of them in his box)

Thank you Jeff

A BIG THANKS to Jeff for letting us in his beeyard to explore and learn. This was our bee club "meeting" for the month - a FIELD day - and it was well received. We all got to see and compare the progress of newly installed packages, a queenless hive, a captured swarm hive, and last years overwintered hives. Jeff showed us his technique of POWDERED SUGARING a hive to check for mites. It was interesting the little WHITE bees emerging...and the change in the sound of the hive. Destroying drone brood was discussed - the freezing method, the cutting out method, etc - as a matter of mite control. Jeff briefly explained his technique of creating NUC hives as well.

THANKS Jeff!