On Thu, 1 Aug 1996, Tom Allen wrote:
 
> Is there any way to increase the count of drone cells.  In my best hive I see
> only a couple of dozen drone cells.
 
I do not know what the root of the problem is, but a couple of us at the
University have been caging the queens over empty drone cells for about a day
using queen excluding mesh, in order to raise our drone production.  It
usually works pretty good.  We have found that it is important that a
colony have enough pollen and nectar to accept the drone larvae once they
hatch (and we typically supplement with pollen patties and syrup).  For a
while we had a queen that would lay nothing but drone brood, and she was
a good source of drone brood.  We kept that colony going for a very long
time by continously supplying it with uncapped worker brood.  It proved
to be a lot of work tho, and we eventually requeened that colony.  Alida
Janmatt, a scientist in our lab, has more experience with these
techniques.
 
> Is this enough ?
 
I don't know.  It might be a waste of time to go to all the effort.  I
think you need at least a couple of dozen drones in the air at a time to
ensure mating.  Since they aggregate at a mating area, i'm not sure how
much over that number needs to be achieved.
 
 
Cheers,
Adony
 
########################################
*** Adony Melathopoulos ****************
***** Center for Pest Management *******
******** Simon Fraser University *******
*********** Burnaby, British Coumbia ***
************** CANADA ******************
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'If men had wings and bore black feathers,
 few of them would be clever enough to be crows'
 
- Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, mid-1800's
 
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