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Dear All,
This is my first year of TBH, and new just to beekeeping. It is near the end of October, and although we have not had a frost yet, the workers are not kicking the drones out as I have been told should be happening. I have not been able to inspect my hive as they have been extremely aggressive, another sign that I might be queenless. Other than a full inspection, does it sound like I am queenless?
Thanks for any input.
Larry
Hi Larry, I have a lot of drones in my TBH hive here in Michigan. It's nothing to worry about. Bees are on their own schedule and will start ousting the drones when they are ready. If you watch closely you may notice that drones are not being allowed to return once they've left. And if there was no queen, the workers would not be aggressively defending the hive, and the colony would have shown signs of disarray by now.
Larry - if i have a large amount of drones in my hives after mid Oct. its normally due to queen issues or the lack of a queen - they keep a lot of drones if they have queen issues - id check it out and see if you have good worker brood and make sure its not a laying worker or drone laying queen
best if luck
Thanks for the advice. It's starting to get cold here, and I think I am just going to wait it out till the spring and see how things are, but of course keep an eye on their stores, and feed if necessary. Hope for the best regarding a queen being present.
larry
There's probably very little you could do about it even if you found a problem this late in the season.Quote:
Originally Posted by llgoddj
Good Luck
Yeah, I wouldn't mess with it now, worst case you accidentally smash your queen. Hives getting defensive late in the year is fairly common as well.
Last year my drones didn't fully get the boot until it snowed. I had a healthy queen.
Do the inspection and see if you have eggs or not. If you see eggs or the queen, its a good thing. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by llgoddj
I'm waiting for queen cells to hatch this weekend and welcome the presence of the drones. :)