David Eyre wrote:
 
> We encourage extra drones in our yards by
> adding drone foundation to selected hives, making drone mother colonies.
How
> many others do that?
 
Like Mr. Gustafsson, we also make sure that we have a more or less complete
frame of drone comb in each hive, right down in the brood nest.  We get more
choosy about the heritage of the drones near the mating yards, but it's more
convenient for us do it by moving the colonies around, rather than adding and
subtracting comb selectively.
 
For the workhorse colonies that spend as much time on the truck as on the
ground (it seems like that, anyway), having large numbers of drones is an
advantage. This year I split several loads using cells, and I depend on lots
of available drones for adequate mating of that many queens.  Unless I bring
the drones in, there don't seem to be enough of them around here.
 
I also buy queens from several different suppliers during the spring and
summer to evaluate for breeders and to requeen the duds.  I use the best for
cells and drone colonies, and cycle the remainder into the general operation
to keep the sex alleles high.
 
Kevin
Hollister, California