Drone Problem

[SCBeeBrewer]

Drones being removed by workers? Drones that are underdeveloped(wings, especially), and drone pupae being removed by workers? 12-15 per day for the last week?
Varroa infestation? Performed powdered sugar treatment with sticky board, lots of mites, to many to count. Any other ideas?

:confused: Steve

[Axtmann]

IMO it is a high virus infection from Varroa mites; too many mites this time of the year. The colony will die within a few months. The only way to save the hive is remove ALL brood combs, treat two times with an oxalic acid evaporator a week apart (not with liquid acid). Let the queen start again and the problem is gone. In a few weeks you will have a healthy new colony.
Good luck

[Michael Bush]

Axtman's advice is good. You could also treat again once a week with the powdered sugar until you see the numbers dropping.

[George Fergusson]

You don't have a drone problem, you have a varroa mite problem and a pretty bad one from the sounds of it. Axtmann's suggestion is drastic, but they are right- you'll lose this hive if you don't do something to lower the varroa population in a hurry. Removing the brood is crude but effective. What's the history of this hive? Is it your only hive?

Removing the brood, freezing it for 24 hours, then putting it back in is a drastic measure but very likely the brood is heavily infested with mites anyways. At the same time, treat either with oxalic acid either drip or vapor, or even keep up the sugar treatments. The bees will recover from losing that brood- They won't recover from the mites.

Alternatively, you could just keep up the powdered sugar treatments, weekly, until the situation improves, but it's very hard to get ahead of the mites when the bees are raising brood.

[peggjam]

How is your weather doing? Did this cold snap extend down your way at all? They could just be cutting down on the amount of mouthes they have to feed with a dwindleing nector supply......maybe:) . If you have that big of a mite infestation, you should be able to check capped drone cells for mites..:) .

[SCBeeBrewer]

Thanks everyone for the input. This Hive and a split I made a few weeks ago are my only hives. I plan on treating with powdered sugar each week for now, then look at the chemicals after the nectar flow. It is amazing how quickly the mites built up. I checked with a sticky board about 1 1/2 months ago to find only around 40 mites over three days. I checked when I first saw the drones being removed, and found 250 mites over three days.

Steve

[George Fergusson]

>250 mites over three days

That represents a hefty mite population. I'm not familiar with beekeeping in your area so I can't say what was going on a month and a half ago but perhaps the drop you were seeing then was lower than normal due to brood rearing conditions at the time. Generally, the amount of drop is directly related to the mount of brood rearing going on- the more brood there is emerging, the more mites you're going to see dropping. Here in Maine during the winter when brood rearing essentially stops, mite drop also falls off to next to nothing.

No matter where you live, 250 mites in 3 days represents a dangerous mite population. Be vigilant. If left unchecked, colony collapse is likely since you're already seeing symptoms of PMS and it's early in the season. As it is they won't be performing as they should. Let us know how it goes.

[Axtmann]

Over 250 mites in 3 days at this time of the year, your hive cannot survive. I would say, more than 90% of the mite population is in the brood cells. You can now easy calculate what approx amount of Varroa you have in this colony.

Forget your powder sugar and the nectar flow and remove all brood combs immediately or your hive is dead in a few weeks.

This will give you only an idea how the Varroa multiply during summer. Go by 1.6 every 21 day, it is probably more but you can see what happen.
Go by an fictive number of 4000 (with an mite drop of 250 in 3 days, you might have more than 4000) and you will have in 21 days 6400, in 42 days 10240 and 3 weeks more 16384 mites. How can a colony live with so many parasites?