Do you kill drones ?

[korki]

A beekeeper said to me to kill the drones from my hive for a greater honey production. Is it true ?

[Finski]

.
No. It has no meaning.

If drone brood are too much, it consumes resources but does not give foragers.
20% drone brood is too much.  It means 2 frames out of 10 brood frames.

[Evan W]

No, the bees know what they are doing. If you decide to use or are using drone foundation than I would remove those frames and place them in the freezer for 24 hours to kill any mites. The bees will remove the deed larvae along with the dead mites. With drone foundation you are altering the ratios of drone to worker bees and will end up with a hive of drones if this is not removed on a regular basis. 

[Oblio13]

If you kill drones, the hive will just burn resources making more.

The bees know more about beeing bees than we do, so let them bee.

I crack myself up.

[iddee]

Are you talking larva or adults?

Drone larva are killed looking for and removing mites. Killing adult drones is useless. The drones don't stay in their home hive.They wander the countryside going from hive to hive. If you kill adults in your hive, they are from other hives, not yours.

[Michael Bush]

> Is it true ?

No.  It will not increase honey production and will, in fact decrease it.

[WarPonyFarms]

It will not increase honey production and will waste your valuable time. 

The extra disruption of normal activity in the hive will reduce production more than having the drones.

I kill drones if I have to replace the royalty for some negative reason.  Then I open drone cells to reduce the bad trait being mated into my queens. 

Killing all the drones in a hive would be extremely time consuming and there will be more the next day.

[Finski]

If you kill drones, the hive will just burn resources making more.

.

That is a fairytale

[Mircea_63]

Drones tell as:

When the hive start to no have drones larvae = about 1 week ago it have no pollen.
............................... no have drones...........= about 2 week ago it have no pollen.
                       
 In my country  it is said that a village without Gypsies, is a poor village. Maybe similar...the beekeepers says that a hive without drones, is a poor hive.

[Michael Bush]

>That is a fairytale

Levin, C.G. and C.H. Collison. 1991. The production and distribution of drone comb and brood in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies as affected by freedom in comb construction. BeeScience 1: 203-211.

[Finski]

>That is a fairytale

Levin, C.G. and C.H. Collison. 1991. The production and distribution of drone comb and brood in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies as affected by freedom in comb construction. BeeScience 1: 203-211.

You should read other researches too. I have argued with you about this for years.



http://www.honeybeesuite.com/drowning-in-drones/

"Remember, there are many reasons that beekeepers developed pre-stamped foundation. One of them was to keep down the number of drones. If you go foundationless, you will always be faced with a higher proportion of drones and a lower yield of honey than a beekeeper using patterned foundation. Every method has its pros and cons."

Rusty




.

[Finski]

                        
 In my country  it is said that a village without Gypsies, is a poor village. Maybe similar...the beekeepers says that a hive without drones, is a poor hive.

Your Gypsies are in Finland now.  They make lots of crimes here and in all countries in the Europe.

Drone thing has nothing to do with gypsies.

Every hive has drones more or less.
If the hive has no place where to make drone cells, bees surely arrange them here and there.
They for example tear foundations down to make drone cells.

[deknow]

Every hive has drones more or less.
If the hive has no place where to make drone cells, bees surely arrange them here and there.
They for example tear foundations down to make drone cells.

Aparantly, at Cornell, they have figured out how to keep bees without having them produce any drones....very successful, 20 out of 20 hives!

deknow

[Finski]

.
I have had 51 years bees.

In my hives there arer allways drones.

If I give them an open area, thery make drones very likely in late spring andf in earkly half of summer.

This is not so difficult to see. You need on one eye.
Stupid discussion by experienced beekeepers but I have seen that even wise men believe what they believe. Mostly it is selling trick.

Cornell no drones? Ity must be some breeding thing.

A honeybee has 2 main task in its life: produce swarms (reproduction) and make drones (reproduction).

First one make "hive babies" and the second send genes to the world.  If a creature cannot do that, it does not exists. A human selection may produce many strains but in free mating habits tend to return tio their original: defensive, swarming and drones.

 Your bees. Keep them as you like.
Life teaches if you cannot learn otherwise.

..

[deknow]

.
I have had 51 years bees.

In my hives there arer allways drones.

I agree, and I was being a little tongue in cheek (sarcastic) in my comment (see below).

Cornell no drones? Ity must be some breeding thing.

No, it's Tom Seeley's small cell study.  None of the 20 colonies raised any drones, and at most made 25 drone cells/month....never inhabited.  My best guess is that saying this makes the data look a little cleaner...but looks aint everything.  I don't understand how things like this can get past peer review.

deknow

[Oblio13]

If you kill drones, the hive will just burn resources making more.

.

That is a fairytale

If you kill drones, does the hive not replace them?

If a hive is producing drones, does it not use its labor, wax, pollen, honey and other resources to do so?

[Mircea_63]

                        
 In my country  it is said that a village without Gypsies, is a poor village. Maybe similar...the beekeepers says that a hive without drones, is a poor hive.

Your Gypsies are in Finland now.  They make lots of crimes here and in all countries in the Europe.

 God bless Finland! If I offended drones, I apologize. Finski... they is yours now.

 A village without gypsies, is a poor village because they have nothing for stole.  When we complained about gypsies, you have accused us of racism... well, now you are racist. :imsorry:

 
 

[Finski]

well, now you are racist. :imsorry:

Rasist or not. It is same what you call me. But I am not a member of thieve organisation

We have really short of working labour on strawberry fields now and picking blueberries from woods. Pickers come from Thailand but none from Romania. Gipsies are not interestred to work with 7 euros/hour.

[Mircea_63]

 Finski, I understand your`s anger. Is my anger just like yours. Only one thing hurts me:
Do you believe the Romanian people is same with gypsis?

  They no work for 7 euro/hour? Wrong!     They no work.Never! Correct! They stolen.   

 I work here for more less 7 euros/hour. BTW...

[deknow]

Nothing like good, old fashoned european racism.  Over here we have people in all.flavors, and I havent noticed that any group behaves any better than any other.  Heard a story about a documentary coming out about a church based group of card counters.....they all stole from one another.

Deknow