[philip.devos]

I am in Baltimore county in Maryland, whose northern border is common to York County, PA. I did a thorough inspection yesterday on a hive that is 3 boxes high (all 7-frame mediums); the boxes are well populated, and there are 5 frames of capped brood with about 100 hundred capped DRONE cells. However, I have not seen any drones.

I would like to split this hive in about 2 weeks, and allow the queenless half make their own queen. Obviously, I don't want to have a virgin queen be unable to find drones.

Are any beeks, particularly in northeast Maryland or southeast Pennsylvania seeing drones?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Phil

 

[elmer_fud]

I am not in your area but I would wait until you start seeing drones or buy a queen (if you can find one), I think I split to early one year and ended up with a drone only laying queen. It took a few months to get this hive sorted out and queen right, so I would wait. I think the drones also need to be about 2 weeks older than the queen before they will mate.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

 

[COAL REAPER]

you will also need temps above 68* for mating flights, which will be almost 3 weeks after you split. if it is just one hive, why not check every week until you see swarm cells and then split with those?

 

[philip.devos]

you will also need temps above 68* for mating flights, which will be almost 3 weeks after you split. if it is just one hive, why not check every week until you see swarm cells and then split with those?

That sounds like a good plan, COAL REAPER; I will employ that, or if I see a material number of drones flying around, I will split and let the bees make a queen.

Thanks ELMER FUDD and COAL REAPER for your replies.

Phil

 

[Apis Natural]

I have 3 dji drones, does that count?:scratch:

 

[philip.devos]

I have 3 dji drones, does that count?:scratch:

Can the drones legally fly on a mating flight in your area? If not, they are probably safer.