A Swarms Drones

[MrILoveTheAnts]

For one of my hives there are hundreds of Drone bees hovering at the entrance. It's a black colored hive in the sun. I've seen workers throwing them out and some appear to be injured on the ground. I'll post pictures and maybe a video later on but does anyone know what's going on here? It is a hive I recently split but they got the middle/top brood box. Could they all be waiting for a queen bee to fly out?

[Brian D. Bray]

>>Could they all be waiting for a queen bee to fly out?

No, the drones mate on the fly in an specific area away from the hives.  An over abundavce of drones is a tax on the hive as you loose one nurse/forager bee for feeding each drone.  Too many drones means the hives will not function properly.  That is why the workers are throwing them out our killing them.  The workers start such activity anytime the percent of drones in the hive exceeds 15-20 percent of the hive population.

If you have excess drone population I would put 1/4 inch hardware cloth over the entrance so the workers can get through but the drones can't, then shake the frames out infront of the hive.  The drones will be unable to reenter the hive.  It is best to locate the frame with the queen and not shake that frame.

The other thing to do is check for swarm cells in all of your hives.  Remember that drones are community creatures not hive creatures so you may be experiencing drone drift from the other hives to a specific hive.  Drone build up usually accompanies swarm cells development.

[Jerrymac]

the drones mate on the fly in an specific area away from the hives. 

I have often wondered about this. So all these drones from all over the place just some how find this area where the drones congregate and wait for a virgin queen to come along. AND some how this virgin queen just knows where to go to find all these drones. Do bees have ESP or something? Is there a waggle dance that tells where this place is?

[Mici]

Brian, are you sure about the too great number of drones? i have read many times that drones are more of free lancers so a number of drones actually can not exceed in a particular hive.


perfect tread, lately i 've been thinking about DCA (drone congregation area), this is just sooooo hypothetical. how to find one, how high is it, how many of them are there (my queen is supposed to fly off up to 5 miles to avoid my drones, right?) so there should be..one DCA per what..2 sq miles. there's just so little known about it huh?

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Alright let's say I shake all the Drones out of my hives, won't they just overrun my other ones. I have a small 4 frame hive in a 10 frame box right next to this one. For that matter I wonder why that one hasn't been engulfed with Drones already.

As for mating location; I imagen the Queen Bee just looks for an open field or is attracted to pheromones of Drones. Flying insects tend to gather swarms randomly at first but eventually find a spot they like. These aren't stationary locations, environment must play a roll. If there happens to be 10,000 extra drones in one of these DCA's one year, really what are the chances of one mating with a queen? If someone builds a sky scraper in a DCA that kind of messes up that area doesn't it.
With Ants and Lightning bugs males tend to gather in one location, being attracted to other males at first. Later the on females show up and the mating begins.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Bees/DroneSwarm.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Bees/DroneSwarm2.jpg
In a related matter can anyone tell me the race of my hive based on these drones? There are both full black and half black ones.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Bees/?action=view&current=P5220031.flv

[Robo]

Do bees have ESP or something?

Something.   Another marvel of nature.   I find it fascinating that salmon can return to the same spot to spawn and that birds can migrate 1000s of miles each winter and return to the exact location the next summer.

[Jerrymac]

Something.   Another marvel of nature.   I find it fascinating that salmon can return to the same spot to spawn and that birds can migrate 1000s of miles each winter and return to the exact location the next summer.

But they have been there before. Earth magnetic poles and stuff. But you bring a bunch of bees to a place they have never been and they raise some drones and queens. How do these new bees know where they are suppose to go. They have never been there before. Neither has their parents or grand parents.

[Brian D. Bray]

>>Alright let's say I shake all the Drones out of my hives, won't they just overrun my other ones. I have a small 4 frame hive in a 10 frame box right next to this one. For that matter I wonder why that one hasn't been engulfed with Drones already.
 
  Yes, they will congregate to other hives.  They may temporarily overrun other near by hives.  If the all the hives in a beeyard become over populated with drones all the hives will swing into a "Throw those bums out."   

I you have only 1-2 hives you can help the bees get rid of the excess drones by the  method I mentioned.  Conversely if you are raising queens you want a drone rich area for mating purposes so that in the "Mating yard" those hives that don't have queen that need mating have an over abundance of drones.  That can be accomplished by placing frames of capped drone combs into the hives that are used to provide the sires.  In queen breeding you are intentionally making a hive drone heavy for a specific purpose for a specfic time. 
Even in these drone rich hives the workers will start to throw the bums out almost immediately but the population will stay high enough, long enough, to fertilize the queens.