TA>From: Tom Allen <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 10:38:44 -0400
>Subject: Re: Drone Laying Colonies
TA>Is there any way to increase the count of drone cells.In my best hive I see
>bloom.Milkweed is also flowering out. The queens are making lots of brood .I
>they are doing well and the colonies strong will the production of drone
>cells be reduced, until the desire for a new queen increases.
Personal observations by myself and others working with bee diets and
testing different pollens as bee foods we saw and used as a tool
to rate different diets that if the bees would rear drones then
the diet was OK. The more drones the better the diet. All of the
testing I did was during the long winter periods we have here in
central California when the bees do not fly at all but the
temperature is not so cold that the bees can not make lots of brood
if they are well fed.
The results were amazing but not cost effective, but there was no
problem rearing drone brood if the bees were kept well fed. From my
personal experiences rearing drones it is easier in the early spring when
there is a good mix of pollen coming in. The normal for pollen
is that the mixtures are better then single source pollens. There is
one exception and this pollen was used as a standard in tests, but it is
not a pollen that is available to many so I won't go into detail.
Bees will draw out full sheets of drone foundation very early in
the spring if it is provided and a good diet is used, or provided by
mother nature. They will bypass regular brood foundation for the drone
and the queens will lay it wall to wall. But feeding must continue if
you want the bees to rear the drones to adults, and even then if you
can not keep conditions more or less flush for the hive the drones will
be in constant jeopardy when bad times approach for the hive as they will
not take care of most of them without your help.
Some pollens are not good at all for anything but to plug up the frames
until the bees can work it out when other sources are available. Many of
the fall pollens fit into this category and many beekeepers find to
their dismay that sometimes hives that they thought were OK a few weeks
prior dwindle down fast but still have heavy amounts of pollen in the
combs, no bees but lots of pollen. Most of the California fall Tar Weeds
fit into this category as do pollen from some of the grasses, (rice),
and corns. Poor pollen and no pollens are about equal in the long term
effects on a bee hives populations and general health. They go from
being big strong "ball busters" to weak little "dinks", sometimes in a
short span of man's time. I have seen it work both ways, that is bees on
a freak winter honey flow fill up with honey and at the same time
dwindle down to nothing because of the lack of pollen and little brood
rearing to replace the ageing field bees. Poor quality pollen produces
poor quality bees that are not long lived, can not invert sugars, or
produce brood food without prematurely ageing.
Diet is the one thing that makes the difference between having good
bees or not having them for long. The same can be said for the number
of drones tolerated in the average hive. When things are good, lots
of drones, and when things go bad, death to the drones. But never all
of them, at least I have never seen it reported that a virgin queen did
not get mated because there were NO drones available to do the job not
withstanding the normal flight restrictions due to bad flight conditions
or beekeepers overstocking a drone deficient area, as some areas will
not allow for the attraction of drones no matter how many are in flight
range. Bee breeders soon learn which areas are good and which are poor
or get a lot of complaints about queen supersedure. One of the worries
early on with the plague of vampire mites which the preferred hosts is
drone brood was that there would be no drones to mate the queens, but as
far as I can find out this has only been a fear and not a realized or
reported fact, yet.
The down side to all this is that drones in most stock have no sense of
belonging and when they fly with vampire mites holding on for dear life
they will venture in to just about any hive between here and there.
Doing so spreads the little blood sucking mites, and good and bad things
of every description. I am sure all this has something to do with the
Einstein's Big Blast Theory or some such variations on a theme, but thats
the way it is and some will not accept it and work their whole
beekeeping life killing and discouraging the rearing of drones and if
they do enough of it for a long enough period of time they will for sure
see every kind of disaster that nature can reward a beekeeper with, but
so will the keeper of bees that makes an effort to have a abundance of
his favorite drones ready for any job that ventures into the air within
several miles of his hives. Not sure who is right, but I like my drones
and do nothing to discourage the hives from rearing them. I have noticed
that when a hive has real drone foundation combs available to the queen
there will be less of it in the worker brood combs. Dadant's at one time
had the die's to make drone foundation and would run it on special
request, but I don't know what is available today.
What was the question?, Aaha, yes you can encourage more drone
production by having drone combs that the queen can lay in, and
providing supplemental food when needed, and sometimes that will
bee during a fall wildflower bloom that produces pollen that is not the
best for rearing brood.
ttul the OLd Drone-
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(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
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~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Let the honey flow!!!!! And the Drones GO!!!
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