Are Drones still active??

[bee_safe]

So I am in my 2nd year as a bee keeper. Have two hives, both of which are hives that I rescued. One that I rescued mid Sept seems to be having trouble. I opened it up today and found that they haven't drawn any new comb since my last check at the beginning of Oct and there were a lot of bees just "standing around" with their abdomens in the air. As I dug deeper, I found lots of capped honey, but no brood and no eggs. On my last inspection there were fresh brood and they were drawing comb like crazy. No signs of beetles or any other parasites. There are four frames that are badly cross combed that I did not get a look at. Am I queenless? or am I just over reacting?

I was thinking I would take a frame from my other hive that has eggs and put it in for them to raise a new queen, but I am not sure if there are any drones available.

Wanted to get a second opinion before I tried to order a queen. There is a breeder not far from me here in Austin, Tx.

[Lburou]

Its a hard thing to make accurate assessments on the keyboard without looking inside your hive. I had a good number of drones here yesterday. Wait a few days and look again. I looked in a hive yesterday and didn't see any eggs or brood. I will check again in a week before ordering a queen from either Dansk or Joseph Clemens. Also waiting on a NUC to requeen itself, we are almost to the point of ordering a queen for them. HTH Good luck.

[bee_safe]

Thanks Lee. I assume if you have drones then if I raise a virgin queen she should be able to find herself a man or two. I will give it a few days, open up again and see if there is any change. If not then I will pull a frame from my other hive.

[oblib]

I know I'm way way north of you but... I was in some of my my hives yesterday and still have a few drones. Not a lot mind you but still a few in every hive I opened.