From: grizzly bearnolds <mkittner@telus.net>
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 21:47:49 -0700
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Drone eviction

>If the workers really sting them to death, that's a hell of a sacrifice.
>Did you observe an equal number of dead workers?

Dead workers are always there, on the beehouse floor in front of the hives,
not huge amount, some, I keep sweeping away once in a while to see how much
there is again in a few days. Hard to say too 'cause the chickens walk by
and I think they pick up some dead bees too. The wind blows some around and
away, there are strong blasts at time.

That week or so that the drones were taken out - yes, I believe I saw at
times two or three workers working at one drone, trying to get him away
from the hive entrance, and also their behinds were towards the drones in a
way that to me it seemed they had stung the drone. I came home one day, and
there were to my mind a lot of dead drones in front of the hives, very
unusual, really out of the blue, one day nothing, the next the drones were
no longer allowed to come in.

Since then, I believe, the girls are just making some half hearted attempts
at the drones, it's no longer that important to them, or maybe there are no
longer that many drones for them to worry about. And they always seem to
keep some in reserve, they leave the remainders alone.

Ma. / Nass Valley .. British Columbia .. CANADA