# We still have drones.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

All week we have been going around and placeing jars of syrup on the girls. It was 67F yesterday here. Kare decided to stay home and keep mixing while I went to the bee yard to place syrup on the girls.
I had a colony that didn't seem to be as active as some of the others so I decided I would look inside.

Lots of bees in the top box still capping honey too. No brood seen but did see the queen & a whole bunch of drones. Not the tiny drones from a laying worker but the big ones the queen lays.

Now I was wondering if it was a fluke hive so I checked 4 more and found the same thing going on in them.

We have had a run of great weather for this time of year here in my part of Michigan.

 Al


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## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

You are so lucky to have nice weather, and I bet your bees are grateful with a Michigan winter ahead. We have nice weather... Sunny and Dry, day after day. The rain we finally got last month was followed by a hard first frost. 
Do Drones stop flying late in the season? I havent heard their loud buzz in quite a while.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

the girls kick out he drones in the fall ,,, my girls were kicking them out last of Aug , 90% were out by Sept 15 . one hive still had a few on the 15th .. if you watch in the fall you would get a good laugh watching the kick out .. this was the first time I seen it , out of 5 years .


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Tom You need to spend more time with the morning tea and afternoon tea by the hives. You will be amazed at the things you see.
They normally can't stop a bumble bee from going in the hive, but you very rarely see one coming back out under their own power.

It is time to get cold here in Michigan. To much warm weather keeps the girls flying about searching for nectar and pollen. Nothing left except the rare dandlion out. Even all the flowers in the flower beds have died back for the winter. I even get a bunch back in the woods to collect the saw dust from my wood cutting.
So they are useing much more food stores that they should be by now.
We have only had our 4th hard frost of the year last night. Ain't normal


 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

we did have coffee by the hives a lot last year ,, but this year ,we just didn't have time . We did miss it though .Bonnie commented a few times about not having coffee with the girls .. what Bonnie said she did NOT miss is the cleansing flights ,, year ago (2010 )we were having coffee , and the girls were doing cleansing flights , and we noticed yellow spots on my shirt , need less to say that was funny .. Bonnie said they were telling us what they thought about us . the one thing that is strange is we can sit in the same place and not even move your head ,, for 5 ,, 10 min , and they hit you in the back or back of the head , hit you in the face ,, and all over .. are they that set in there flight path ?????????


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

"*are they that set in there flight path" *

The answer is YES. Kare is after me every time I go to one ofthe out yards where I have to drive in front of the hives to not stop in their flight paths. They do even at times seem to get cranky about it even.

 Al


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## Boris (Nov 18, 2010)

alleyyooper said:


> ...No brood seen but did see the queen & a whole bunch of drones. Not the tiny drones from a laying worker but the big ones the queen lays...l


My observations, related to this thread were posted here:
http://www.beebehavior.com/global_warming_bee_behavior.php


Boris Romanov


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## sevenmmm (Mar 1, 2011)

I did an impromptu inspection yesterday on 2 hives and found some worker-sized drones...

They must be finding nectar as they have about the same amount of honey in Early October. A few fly out to gather even in 45 degree temps.


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## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

Well I went out to swich hive bodies from a combine I didlast month, and figured I would look for drones while it was opened up. To my dismay, my hive is empty. There is about 1 good handful of bees. Guess they swarmed.... Im disgusted. No queen, no brood, no drones. About 80 pounds of capped honey and mabey 200 bees. First year of beekeeping is a bust.


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