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Drone laying colony

PostPosted:20 Jul 2021, 19:25
by Bobbysbees
Well it looks like I missed a swarm
I'm left with a handful of workers one queen cell that I'm preying is viable and to add insult to injury 3 empty supers.
there seems to be a few bits of brood but all the capped stuff seems to be drones.
I was thinking of throwing a couple of frames of capped brood and a frame of eggs in there and hoping for the best.
But is there a better way?
I have considered shaking the whole lot out on the lawn and buying in a queen or even combining them with another hive but I could do with some advice.

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:21 Jul 2021, 10:15
by Caroline
If the colony is disease free, I would suggest uniting what bees are left onto another hive. You want good strong colonies in the Autumn (only a few weeks now) in preparation for winter.

Are you sure it was a drone laying queen? Was the brood pattern normal on previous inspections, with worker brood? If laying ceased and all worker brood emerged then the remaining cells to emerge would be drone. Worker emergence = day 21, drone emergence = day 24.
You don't give any timescales, so difficult to judge what has occurred.

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:21 Jul 2021, 11:27
by NigelP
Sounds like you may be seeing the remnants of the old brood pre swarm....drones take longer to emerge so are the last remaining cells. If you have a drone layer you will find eggs and larvae as well.
If there are literally only a handful of workers bees you have to ask yourself are they worth saving. Might be better to throw out (if close to another hive) or unite.....but be careful there may be a queen in there yet to come into lay. Despite what is said they can take some time before starting to lay. This year one of mine took nearly 4 weeks from emergence to start laying. Another emerged last Wednesday/Thursday and was already laying by Monday.

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:21 Jul 2021, 14:13
by Patrick
Sort of depends how many colonies you already have. Assuming it is more than two, the problem is the season is already well underway and the amount of time left to build up again is limited. It may well have not only prime swarmed but then cast swarmed again until barely anything is left (typically emptying the supers to nil in the process). I would not waste good resources (ie capped brood from a decent hive) trying to bolster poor remnant colonies which may be unable to support them and get through the winter.

Either 1) leave them to it and what will be will be 2) put what remains in a nuc if you have a spare one and see what happens 3) just get on with it and shake them out and put it own to experience. Its easy for swarming to push you into lots of small boxes of bees - there lies expensive madness..

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:21 Jul 2021, 19:17
by Steve 1972
You have a Queen cell leave them to it and hope for the best..

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:23 Jul 2021, 13:42
by AdamD
If the drone brood is the remnants of the previous queen, then it will be 3 weeks since worker eggs were laid. The queen should emerge any day. Once she is out, and you see her, and you have a couple of other colonies, you could consider adding a frame of brood from one (assuming there's enough bees to cover it) and then adding another, once most of the brood has emerged. By that time, if the queen has mated the colony should be viable with steady feeding to encourage the queen to lay. The loss of a frame of brood from each of two good-sized colonies should not cause them too much of an issue. (Your new queen, once mated, will need to go into a smaller box, ideally, in my view, a 6 frame polystyrene one).

As usual with beekeeping, there are loads of options. Whatever happens, you can unite this colony to another one at any time.

(Adding frames does, of course, assume there are no disease concerns).

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:26 Jul 2021, 23:27
by Polymorph
I'm really not clear how there can be a queen cell and sealed drone, but all the worker has emerged. in the scenario above I would think its a resealed queen cell, possibly with a worker inside. The timings all seem off otherwise. If it's so rundown, then a combine seems the best option. Peel back the QC if still sealed, as definitely too long and have a look.

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:27 Jul 2021, 02:12
by MickBBKA
Don't get caught out by a super drone in a queen cell. Its usually evident by a very large queen cell.

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:28 Jul 2021, 17:36
by NigelP
Polymorph wrote:
26 Jul 2021, 23:27
I'm really not clear how there can be a queen cell and sealed drone, but all the worker has emerged. in the scenario above I would think its a resealed queen cell, possibly with a worker inside. The timings all seem off otherwise. If it's so rundown, then a combine seems the best option. Peel back the QC if still sealed, as definitely too long and have a look.
Good point....Either duff or king cell.

Re: Drone laying colony

PostPosted:28 Jul 2021, 21:22
by Bobbysbees
With luck I will get into them tomorrow and see exactly what's what.
I will let you know what the state of play is , if I find that the QC has hatched I would hope shes mated by now.
Not sure about the whole King Cell thing ,but there was open brood and eggs last time I checked but no capped worker brood only capped drones. So it may be the case that the QC was a dud.