No Drones?

[philinacoma]

Hey,

I opened up one of my hives today. A swarm I picked up about 6 weeks ago. It was in a 5 frame NUC and this was the first opportunity I have had between weather and other commitments. I was transferring them into an 8 frame box.

First thing I noticed, not much honey at a time of the year where they should be going gang busters. Fair amount of brood, not a huge amount. About 50-70% of 3 frames out of the 5 with brood mixed capped and uncapped. Pattern not too bad. Didn't see the queen, but I didn't have my usual queen spotter with me. The number of bees was OK for what they had built up. It was early afternoon and a warm, but not hot, day.

What got me though was I did not see a single drone.

What??

[johng]

I don't live in Aus. but, here's my guess. Since this is a small swarm in the process of building up they don't have any need for drones. They normally have some in the swarm but, you said they did not have as much honey as you expected. They maybe struggling some and kicked out what drones they had to conserve resources.

[BeeMaster2]

I agree with John. They won't support drones with nominal supplies.
Jim