Drone colonies

[TWall]

What are some strategies hobby/small scale queen breeders use to manipulate drone populations near their mating yards?

I'm thinking of raising some queens next year. I'd like to try and increase the number of desirable drones in the area. I certainly won't be able to flood the area. But, would like to increase the odds of having queens mate with preferred drones.

Tom

[slickbrightspear]

raise queens and offer them free to other bee keepers near you to keep more of your drones around

[RiodeLobo]

I was wondering the same thing.

My question is what if you pic a couple of colonies that you want for drones, raise queens from them put them in nucs and clip them before they mate. Than they will lay exclusively drone eggs. Of course you would have to supplement the nuc with nurse bees, or frames of brood to keep them going. At the end of the queen rearing season you would just recombine or try to keep them going through the winter in a nuc.

Would this flood the area with more drones than putting a couple of drone frames into the hive? It sure would be more work than using drone frames.

Has anyone tried this? I have not.

Thanks,
Dan

[olddrown]

Go to Dr. Larry Connor Wicwas Press ,Look at article Jan. 06 smale scale Queen rearing.
Take a look at the others as well.
Jim

[KeithC]

it was hard for me to find....so here is a link

[rrussell6870]

I have made some attempts at answering a lot of these same questions on another thread titled "queen quality over subsequent generations". Read over it, and if it doesn't help, let me know. I will gladly discuss it in further detail here. Good luck!

[RiodeLobo]

Just a quick question on reducing unwanted drones. Other than removing drone comb from poorer quality hives what other techniques there are?

Thanks
Dan

PS The info on the other thread was very helpful. Thanks

[rrussell6870]

Dan,

The most effective means of controlling drone populations is to of course move all unwanted genetics to a different location that is outside of the area.

For small operations and for those that are just trying out breeding for interest, I would suggest that you spend the winter and early spring studying your hives at every location.

Then in mid-late spring, move your very best hives to one location and install drones combs... you will want to set up your mating nucs at this location, and you will want to chose a location that is as isolated as possible from other colonies.

Transporting cells can be very difficult, so if you are not ready to graft and build cells in one location, then move the cells to the mating nucs on the hatch day, you may want to choose a few of those drone hive to build cells, and either make nucs to graft from (in the yard) or set up a few grafting hives in the mating yard... although the first method is preferred and will ultimately give you more control and take less effort.