REGARDING            RE>Drones local or shipped
 
Jim Moore wrote:
"I have some questions about drones. I got two
packagesand did the installation back on 5/1. I'm a
new beekeeper. I can't say if the packages had drones
as I wasn't looking for them. The next day I was
observing the bees coming and going and saw alot of
drones.
        I mentioned this to the middleman supplier and
he stated that the drones were local drones attracted
by the smell of the queen and not shipped as they are
excluded during packaging. If so, one hive was clearly
more attractive as it had 3 times as many drones.
        Q: Is this a resonaable explanation?"
 
A bee supplier should probably reply to this, but I don't remember that
package bees I have received were lacking in drones.  I would think that it
would be a huge bother to exclude drones from shipping packages, and rather
pointless as well.
 
        "When discussing the appearance of drones, even
though at that point I had not seen a single bee all
spring, it was suggested that maybe the varroa weakened
hives, both managed and feral, might have lost their
queens and be producing drones via laying workers.
        This is one of the interesting aspects of bee
genetics I think. The daughters of the dead queen that
survived the mite problems produce drones. Then
potentially the drones carry that trait of to mate with
a virgin queen should one be found.
        Q: Is the surving genetic pool provided by
drones from surviving laying workers one path to mite
resistnace? If so, is it advantageous to permit the
drone rearing colonies to persist thus providing a
stronger gene pool?"
 
The usual path of varroa collapse is for the entire colony to die off rather
quickly.  The queen and a small cluster are usually the last to go.  I doubt
that laying workers would ever develop in a colony devastated by varroa.
However, if drones would be produced in this way, they would be the most
likely carriers of the mite, since even in a normal colony drone brood is
preferentially attacked.
 
Another thing.  A colony that has laying workers is a stressed colony.  It
definitely is not healthy, as seen by the prevalance of chalkbrood and wax
moths.  The moth especially is a sign  that a colony has lost its will to
live.  There would be no advantage to keeping it at all.
 
        "Lastly, if the drones are locals, then the fact
that the package was mite free is of no consequence as
the drones would carry mites from their infested hive.
        Q: Is the apistan strip that is in the package
going to be sufficient to knock down the drone imported
mites?"
 
No, whether or not the drones were locals I would recommend that you always
start out a package hive by giving it two Apistan strips.  You don't ever
know for sure what the specific history of those bees was, and it is better
to be safe than sorry.
 
Ted Fischer