Larger Bees Seen Entering/leaving Hive

3875 Views 28 Replies 17 Participants Last post by BadBeeKeeper, May 1, 2021

mikecoscia

Discussion Starter · Apr 24, 2021

New to beekeeping and installed my NUC into the hive two weeks ago. Today I was watching them come and go and noticed larger bees. It’s the first time I have seen them. Does this indicate robbing?

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username00101

· #2 · Apr 24, 2021

That's the man of the house.

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123989

· #3 · Apr 24, 2021

That’s a drone, the only male bees in the hive. Their only job is to mate with queens. After that they die. Even if they don’t do that the workers will kick them out to die in the fall.

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I thought the drones typically didn’t leave the hive? Could it be a drone laying queen? Or am I just reading way too much into it as a new beekeeper...lol. It’s only been two weeks, but I was able to see comb being drawn out on the new frames I put in the hive. Maybe, I’ll pop the lid off this evening and see how they are doing.

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Earthboy

· #5 · Apr 24, 2021

mikecoscia said:
I thought the drones typically didn’t leave the hive? Could it be a drone laying queen? Or am I just reading way too much into it as a new beekeeper...lol. It’s only been two weeks, but I was able to see comb being drawn out on the new frames I put in the hive. Maybe, I’ll pop the lid off this evening and see how they are doing.

They do leave the hive regularly to visit the gym where they show off their biceps, among others, doing curls and mostly taking selfies to show off to their girlfriends. They are a tool.

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123989

· #6 · Apr 24, 2021

mikecoscia said:
I thought the drones typically didn’t leave the hive? Could it be a drone laying queen? Or am I just reading way too much into it as a new beekeeper...lol. It’s only been two weeks, but I was able to see comb being drawn out on the new frames I put in the hive. Maybe, I’ll pop the lid off this evening and see how they are doing.

Well if they never left the hive they would never get a chance to mate with queens. They don’t mate with the queen of their own hive.

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mikecoscia

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 24, 2021

Earthboy said:
They do leave the hive regularly to visit the gym where they show off their biceps, among others, doing curls and mostly taking selfies to show off to their girlfriends. They are a tool.

😂😂😂

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Rader Sidetrack

· #8 · Apr 24, 2021

Drones head on over to the local ~~bar~~ DCA (Drone Congregation Area), where they hang out while waiting for a virgin queen to come along.

More on DCAs here:

Finding DCA’s | Bee Culture

www.beeculture.com

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123989

· #9 · Apr 24, 2021

The only thing wrong with that analogy is that you won’t find a virgin in a bar.😁

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pressure9pa

· #10 · Apr 24, 2021

Congrats on the new hive. The easiest giveaway to identify a drone is to look at the eyes. There is variance in size of course, but that could be attributed to another colony with different genetics as you feared.

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username00101

· #11 · Apr 24, 2021

DCA's aren't really quite like anything in modern society, as much as folks try to make analogies

Unlike modern human society, a queen will only mate once, when she's a virgin with multiple (numerous) males in one gigantic bee orgy.

Tell me where that happens in modern society, and I'll give you a silver spoon.

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123989

· #12 · Apr 24, 2021

Unlike modern human society, a queen will only mate once

Evidently you’re not
Married.🤣😂🙂

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Emmett

· #13 · Apr 24, 2021

My package of bees came with one singular drone. I've seen him exit the hive once. Found him in there too many times. I marked him for practice before the queen. Thats how I know he's the only one. When I was looking for drones to practice on he was the only one in there.

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LarryBud

· #14 · Apr 24, 2021

Rader Sidetrack said:
Drones head on over to the local ~~bar~~ DCA (Drone Congregation Area), where they hang out while waiting for a virgin queen to come along.

More on DCAs here:

Finding DCA’s | Bee Culture

www.beeculture.com

the problem with virgin queens is after they use you, the kill you. Knew a few girls like that back in the day!

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mikecoscia

Discussion Starter · #15 · Apr 25, 2021

Rader Sidetrack said:
Drones head on over to the local ~~bar~~ DCA (Drone Congregation Area), where they hang out while waiting for a virgin queen to come along.

More on DCAs here:

Finding DCA’s | Bee Culture

www.beeculture.com

That’s wild! They never mentioned DCAs in my beekeeping class and it wasn’t in the books we were required to read. Thanks for posting the link, I’m going to look into it more.

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username00101

· #16 · Apr 25, 2021

fadder said:
Unlike modern human society, a queen will only mate once

Evidently you’re not
Married.🤣😂🙂

The virgin mates in a bee orgy one time her entire life. It'd be like consummating the marriage, with every single virile man in town, for a single night, and then never mating again, while the queen continues to have all these random men's children year after year.

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Oldtimer

· #17 · Apr 25, 2021

mikecoscia said:
I thought the drones typically didn’t leave the hive?

They do leave the hive

mikecoscia said:
Could it be a drone laying queen?

mikecoscia said:
am I just reading way too much into it as a new beekeeper.

Yes

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LarryBud

· #18 · Apr 25, 2021

It's a learning curve.

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Cobbler

· #19 · Apr 25, 2021

pressure9pa said:
Congrats on the new hive. The easiest giveaway to identify a drone is to look at the eyes. There is variance in size of course, but that could be attributed to another colony with different genetics as you feared.

I find that drones are especially easy to identify as they fly - even from a short distance - because of the way their hind legs hang down.