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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Dear Abbee...
  • Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:55:24 -0500 (EST)

The bees are in no way dealing with varroa by rearing only drones.  A colony full of drones/drone brood due to either drone laying queen or laying workers is 100% doomed.  Newspaper combine on strong colony is an option.  Consolation prize for a deadout is drawn comb.

 

I dealt with mites in the fall with formic which may explain my poorly mated queen.  Colonies will sometimes supercede the queen during treatment.  Of the 32 colonies I treated this is the only colony to pull this move.  Formic does have it's pros and cons but for me the pros far outweigh the cons.

 

 


On January 14, 2013 at 11:31 AM Just Bee <marty AT justbeenc.com> wrote:

Lewis
 
Assuming you went back in to look at all brood and she's only laying drones. Would you consider or advise doing drone culling as a means of Varroa control before you do the combo? 
 
Taking advantage of a bad situation! Jens had drones and there were 1-2 varroa per cell so maybe(hopefully) its their way, though bad if they do not cull naturally, of dealing with the varroa by putting out drones only. Jens were pulling their their drones. 
 
Just hoping this is the reason. Anyway, just a thought about drone culling before combo.
 
Cheers,
Mh

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 14, 2013, at 8:24 AM, Lewis Cauble < lewis AT hivebody.com> wrote:

 

Cousin Dave,

Thank you for your prompt and accurate advise!  I do in fact have a drone laying queen.  It's not clear if this is my original queen who did an amazing job last summer and has just run out of sperm or a poorly mated replacement queen.  At any rate, this colony is in a downward spiral.  Things are not going to get any better.  Grafting drone larva will never produce a queen so your advice to catch up on sleep instead is spot on.

 

In 3 or 4 weeks when my other colonies are stronger I will go back and pinch the queen and do a newspaper combine on a strong queenright colony.  A couple of weeks after that I could go back and split the combined colony.

 

Cheers,

 

Sleepless

 


On January 13, 2013 at 8:29 AM David Eckert < daveckert AT gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Sleepless,
 
Before you relocate all your hives to this magical micro-environment or start taking orders for the next greatest strain of queens, you might want to take another look and try to find some worker brood in addition to your bumper crop of drone bum brood.  If you don't find worker brood then you may have a drone laying queen.  Which isn't nearly as exciting since that would mean this hive isn't likely to make it for very much longer with this lady on the throne.   
 
If you can confirm that she's a drone laying queen then I'd suggest you skip the grafting and spend that time catching up on some sleep.  There will be plenty to do once Spring truly arrives.  
 
From Abbee's less insightful third cousin twice removed,
Dave


On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com> wrote:

 

Dear Abbee, 

I took advantage of the warm weather today and inspected a few colonies.  I've got some winners and some losers, but no surprises except for one. 

 

In bee school, they told me that all of the drones get kicked out in the fall because they are a bunch of lazy bums.  When resources start coming in to the colony in the spring, the queen will begin laying a new crop of bums.  Well, I opened a colony today and it was full of drones and drone brood.  Good news, right?  Spring must be here.  The funny thing is that I have other colonies within about 1000 ft of this colony but nary a drone or signs of drone brood in those colonies at all.  Should I move my other colonies closer to this colony to take advantage of an obviously superior micro-environment?  Should I graft off of this super queen? 

 

Enclosed please find a photo of my super queen.  

 

Sincerely, 

 

Sleepless in Cedar Grove 

      


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