[rskenny]

Yesterday I saw about 10-15 drone bees enter and leave my hive in about a ten minute span. is this good thing, and what are they doing? One more factor may be the cold we are having in Indiana. I have attached a picture of one .


Thanks
Rich

 

[sqkcrk]

It's not a bad thing.

 

[JustinH]

My drones were leaving too. And also being kicked out by the workers. I'd see two workers gang up on a drone. I thought they only kicked out drones in the fall? Or if stores are low. Neither are the current case.

 

[jwcarlson]

I just had a hive raise a new queen, and I swear the hive is half drones. There are an absolute ton of them. They're covering entire combs all by themselves. I never had a drone layer in this hive, but they were raising a lot of them. I keep waiting for them to start kicking them out (the queen has returned and is laying up the hive)... it will be a massacre. Seems like an awful drain on resources to keep them around, but I'll trust the bees to do what they do.

They fly out to try to mate and when they come back in the afternoon/evening there are hundreds of them pouring into the hive. There is nothing "bad" about them.