Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Just5398 on June 22, 2013, 06:58:18 pm
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Why would they be doing that? Today I was watching them do their thing and noticed about 5 or so newly hatched drones tossed out still alive. The look perfectly normal, coloring was a little light but guess that's because they are new.
I installed the nuc on may 12 and with all the rainy weather we've been having in NJ they seem to be getting a slow start.
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The girls counted them and saw they had 5 too many.
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A drones outlook is pretty bleak as swarm season nears the end.
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Lol, OK. I figured they had their reasons but why nurture them in the beginning only to toss aside when they hatch? Is that normal bee behavior?
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I was "learned" that they have a quota depending on the conditions of the hive, flow etc. and they stick to it.
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They will remove defective larvae, whether drone or worker. If a recessive gene that causes a defect they will get it out. Or it could have been caused by the dreaded mite. Varroa. :) d2
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When is the last time you did an inspection? Did you rearrange anything or kill in brood :? May be that simple. Anyway a good genetic trait.
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ya, they do that. 5 within the time of you watching is probably rare, but drones are semi useless anyways. also check and see about your food stores in the hive. when things get tough, the drones get the boot first, since they are freeloaders, and the woman know it. plus they can;t sting, so they get no respect.
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I had the same thing happen to me the other week. No apparent reason. Hive was strong, good stores and flow.
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I guess the last inspection was about a week and a half ago. More capped drone cells than I'd like to see.
I looked at the ones they brought out and I didn't notice any mites. I will do a through inspection this week.
Thank you for the replies.
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I did a few walk away splits and two days later I noticed 200 dead bees outside one of the splits, all dead drones and workers expelling more of them as I watched. The queen-right half of the split however did nothing similar.
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I’ve had foundationless nucs so packed with drones, there probably aren’t enough girls even attempt to drag them out. Are you using foundation, or foundationless? You really need to cut open a number of drone cells if you want to determine how infested your hive is with varroa.
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I'm using wax coated plastic foundation.
Im using a screened bottom board, would that method be accurate enough?