Hi all,
Just a quick question for those in the Sydney area. I've been abroad for 5 weeks and was anxious to see how the girls were doing. Observing my 2 hives this weekend I noticed drones coming and going - approximately 5 per minute, compared to 50 workers per minute. I don't want to do an inspection to avoid stress, it also gets down to 7 degrees centigrade at night and around 18 in the day.
Looking at reference material there seems to be little on drones at this time of year, even in temperate areas. I see 3-4 different types of pollen coming in, even though the local area is sparse - I can see some gums in bloom. With this early flowering, is it possible they are already starting their spring build up? I expected another month or two of winter lock down....