[jsorber]

I'm new this year. From what I can tell we're in a slow nectar periord....still a lot of dandelion but the fireweed is pretty much gone. A bit of clover around still, some goldenrod but it's not very prevalent in our area anyhow. One of my hives, started from a package in April has been kicking out drones pretty heavily the last few days. I did an inspection a couple of days ago and watched a few worker bees actually stinging and carrying off the dead drones. At the entrance today the guard bees have been stinging a few of the drones but have been blocking them from coming in and they have now corralled a bunch of drones on the front of the hive. Periodically a guard bee will go over and sting one of the corralled drones and knock it to the ground. The ground in front of the hive has around a hundred or so dead drones that have accumulated in front of it (no dead worker bees that I can see). This hive hasn't been fed for two months but has quite a bit of stores in it. This hive is foundationless and they did build up quite a drone population although most of the drone comb is now being backfilled with honey. I did an alcohol wash mite count the other day and only found 2 mites on a half cup sample. The drones being kicked out appear healthy (no DWV or visible mites).

I'm pretty sure this is normal going into late summer, but wanted to check in. The hive has not had any chemical treatments for mites.

Thanks

 

[Phoebee]

There was a thread here with a similar observation a couple of days ago:

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?301605-Drone-issues

 

[Vance G]

I have never seen workers sting drones but It the evictions are not something I spend a lot of time watching. It is a completely normal behavior in bees.

 

[Ryan Williamson]

Yes I have been seeing my bees kicking out drones here as well. It actually smells bad in my bee yard some times from all the dead drones in front of a few hives! It happens every year here when the summer dearth hits and signal s the end of queen rearing in my operation.

 

[jsorber]

Thanks....I figured this was a normal and good behavior but wanted to check in. They have plenty of honey and pollen in the colony....I'm not going to object to them trimming down the number of mouths to feed for the late summer lull.