I have some questions about drones. I got two packages and 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? 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? 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? There may not be clear answers to the above questions but I would appreciate some discussion. Thanks. Jim Moore