Author Topic: Pic: green drone frame with capped cells. (Read 3226 times)

van from Arkansas · « **on:** May 30, 2020, 06:19:34 pm »

For those of you who have never seen the green drone frame filled and capped. I post the following pic for your viewing pleasure.

CoolBees · « **Reply #1 on:** May 30, 2020, 06:48:50 pm »

awesome Mr. Van. That's a new one to me. Very nice looking Drone Frame. Thank you for sharing.

iddee · « **Reply #2 on:** May 30, 2020, 06:57:13 pm »

Is that for queen breeding or varroa control?

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #3 on:** May 30, 2020, 07:09:18 pm »

Queen breedings. This is the second drone frame from two different Cordovan queens. First frame was in late March, hatched mid April, mature by May 1. The drone frame pictured will be produce mature drones in mid June. Both Cordovan queens given green frame and purchased out of California last April, to reduce inbreeding when I graft from my 4 year old breeder queen, Alpha.

William Bagwell · « **Reply #4 on:** May 30, 2020, 10:02:02 pm »

Quote from: iddee on May 30, 2020, 06:57:13 pm

Is that for queen breeding or varroa control?

My bees think they are for storing syrup. At least they drew it out so that is a plus.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #5 on:** May 30, 2020, 11:22:39 pm »

Looks like the right ticket Mr Van.

Bee North · « **Reply #6 on:** May 31, 2020, 05:45:40 am »

Hi Van

Firstly thanks for posting. I have learnt a lot from your posts and comments. I respect your knowledge....and your Alpha is incredible!

Looking at that frame i have a question.

For me, the first signs of a hive preparing to swarm are excessive drone cells. So, when your raising drones for your mating yard do all those drones trigger the swarm impulse? If so how do you manage this?

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #7 on:** May 31, 2020, 09:42:16 am »

Mr. North, from down Under, greetings. The drone frame does not promote swarming if there is plenty of room for the queen to lay. If a genetic grade hive prepares to swarm, that is, if I find queen cells, I find the queen and remove the queen. No queen, no swarm. Then the queen is placed in a new hive with brood, food and frames to lay and moved to a new location, which may be only a few feet away.

My genetic grade queens are placed in hives and the queen does not know where she is at so no way for the queen to return to the original hive. Support grade hives are allowed to swarm most of the time.

Cheers

Bee North · « **Reply #8 on:** May 31, 2020, 04:23:12 pm »

Mr Van
Thanks for the clear explanation, greatly appreciated and makes sense.

I may need some guidance going into spring as I am planning on doing some grafting for the first time. I live in the tropics and have drones pretty much all year round. I had 5 out of 5 queens mated this Autumn from swarm cells, so my Aipary has somewhat expanded. Grafting has always fascinated me. I have done the homework. Made the nucs and ordered the gear....bring on Spring!

Nock · « **Reply #9 on:** May 31, 2020, 05:39:48 pm »

Nice pic. Will you place it in a hive where they can?t get out? So you know for sure they are those drones?

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 01, 2020, 08:21:58 am »

Quote from: William Bagwell on May 30, 2020, 10:02:02 pm

Quote from: iddee on May 30, 2020, 06:57:13 pm
Is that for queen breeding or varroa control?

My bees think they are for storing syrup. At least they drew it out so that is a plus.

William,
That means that your bees do not think they are strong enough to build the hive and feed the drones or the flow is slowing down and there is not enough food coming in to support the drones. Probably the first one.
Jim Altmiller

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #11 on:** June 01, 2020, 09:48:16 am »

Quote from: Nock on May 31, 2020, 05:39:48 pm

Nice pic. Will you place it in a hive where they can?t get out? So you know for sure they are those drones?

Good Morning Mr. Nock. The drones in the pic are were laid by a genetic grade Cordovan queen. Thus all the drones will all be yellow. So no need to lock up the drones. I can tell which drones are Cordovan by the color, absence of black coloring. When I find drone brood in a support grade Italian bee hive, I destroy other drone brood. I later catch the drones by placing a queen excluder on the hive entrance. The captured yellow drones are then used for instrumental insemination to a virgin Cordovan queen.

For reference, simply stated, a Cordovan queen can only lay a Cordovan colored drone. Drones have no father, but do have a granddad.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #12 on:** June 01, 2020, 10:43:45 am »

Quoting Mr Van.
"For reference, simply stated, a Cordovan queen can only lay a Cordovan colored drone. Drones have no father, but do have a granddad."

Mr Van I have never given any thought to that, or until now do not 'remember' reading or hearing of this. But it makes perfect sense and is absolutely right and amazing. Thanks for the information.

Nock · « **Reply #13 on:** June 01, 2020, 12:08:11 pm »

Gotcha. Makes sense. I took a pic yesterday of a frame while I was inspecting. I know it?s not drones but to nice not to share.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #14 on:** June 01, 2020, 05:34:40 pm »

Oh Man, that queen is a keeper. She laid wood to wood. I see that rarely.

Now, if that hive is gentle, looks that way and a good honey producer, you have a genetic grade quality queen. Breed from that high quality queen.

The15thMember · « **Reply #15 on:** June 01, 2020, 06:09:31 pm »

Quote from: Nock on June 01, 2020, 12:08:11 pm

Gotcha. Makes sense. I took a pic yesterday of a frame while I was inspecting. I know it?s not drones but to nice not to share.

Gorgeous!

William Bagwell · « **Reply #16 on:** June 01, 2020, 08:47:56 pm »

Quote from: sawdstmakr on June 01, 2020, 08:21:58 am

Quote from: William Bagwell on May 30, 2020, 10:02:02 pm
My bees think they are for storing syrup. At least they drew it out so that is a plus.
William,
That means that your bees do not think they are strong enough to build the hive and feed the drones or the flow is slowing down and there is not enough food coming in to support the drones. Probably the first one.
Jim Altmiller

Oh, they raised plenty of drones just not on the frame where I wanted drones. First year so trying lots of different things. Wax foundation (5.1 MM), foundation less with Popsicle sticks (some with bamboo skewers) and various plastic foundation. Black, white and green. Have had successes and failures with all in getting them drawn. The little buggers have not only put a patch of drone cells on a bunch of worker frames, they reworked a tiny patch of the drone frame down to worker bee size.

All in all I think they are doing great. Went from a five frame nuc to two hives and a nuc in two months. Oh, most of the green frame might actully be honey rather than sugar syrup. Quit feeding it at the two week mark when I saw how much they had capped. And the green frame was less than 10% capped that day. Wish I had taken a similar set of pictures at four weeks.

Nock · « **Reply #17 on:** June 02, 2020, 10:45:32 am »

Quote from: van from Arkansas on June 01, 2020, 05:34:40 pm

Oh Man, that queen is a keeper. She laid wood to wood. I see that rarely.

Now, if that hive is gentle, looks that way and a good honey producer, you have a genetic grade quality queen. Breed from that high quality queen.

So far they have been gentle as well. I plan on keeping her in mind.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #18 on:** June 02, 2020, 12:49:53 pm »

>. Oh Man, that queen is a keeper. She laid wood to wood.

She's a good one Nock. Especially being she's gentle.

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 02, 2020, 10:00:56 pm »

It's always a pleasure seeing a full frame of brood, you have a good queen there and I'm glad to hear you are using her for a genetic base. Can't say I'm at your level of bee keeping but we can always be inspired to do better when presented with such wonderful ideas.
My genetic control is to destroy drone cells in hives that aren't producers or have gotten aggressive. LOL