What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[beesnweeds]

If population is suitable, Imma go for a split.

Is there plenty of drones flying?

[Terri Yaki]

If population is suitable, Imma go for a split.

Is there plenty of drones flying?

I'm not sure but there was a bit of capped drone cells when I checked about 12 days ago.

[bwallace23350]

I made a split two weeks ago but yesterday I just checked to see how how the girls were doing in making me a honey crop

[Terri Yaki]

Well, what did you find?

[The15thMember]

Swarms don't come with anything but themselves and some honey. Do they bring some pollen along too?

Then anything else you want to add, depending on the size of the hive you are splitting.

Swarms don't bring pollen, but there is a reason they try to find a cavity that already has comb and stores left from previous occupants, and there is a reason that 80% of swarms don't survive their first season.  Swarms are in a precarious position.  They have to find a home before the workers' supply of honey to draw wax runs out and then have to start a colony from scratch and build enough comb quickly enough to raise enough bees and put up enough honey for the winter.  I prefer to start out a split with more resources than a swarm, since I would certainly like a more than 20% chance that they will survive.           

[The15thMember]

If population is suitable, Imma go for a split.

Is there plenty of drones flying?

I'm not sure but there was a bit of capped drone cells when I checked about 12 days ago.

I just realized that this conversation should not get lost in the shuffle.  I would not make a split until you have walking drones at least, and if you can wait for flying drones, so much the better.  You don't want to have a colony raise a queen and then not have her be able to mate because there aren't enough drones on the wing. 

I checked on 3 colonies today.  Gave another box to Queen Cindy and did a sugar roll.  Only 1 mite, so feeling good about that.  I discovered when I opened up Queen Ariel's colony that she had swarmed, so evidently the swarm that went far up into the pine tree was the prime swarm of this colony, not another afterswarm from Snow White's colony.  They had a bunch of queen cells, and I don't need any more swarms on high branches, so I split the colony again, putting QCs with both halves.  I also peeked into my mean colony just to check for brood from the new queen, and did find some, so we should be mean bee free in another couple of weeks at worst.  They seemed better today already, but I only pulled 2 frames, so not really a good test.   

[Terri Yaki]

OK, I'm not in a hurry to split them but I do want to catch them before they swarm on me. I went to the house of pain for my knee today and was in no mood to go through the hive but I did lift the lid and watch them for a bit. Traffic was pretty heavy with a whitish pollen coming in and I popped the lid and saw a lot of activity on top. Now I'm dying to see what all they're up to in there. Hopefully tomorrow.

[Terri Yaki]

OK, I went out and went through the hive. There is no shortage of space and she's laying in both brood boxes. Above the QE, where I found brood last time, there is a good bit of capped drone. I do have an upper entrance on the hive but they don't seem to be using it. Would the drones find it on their own? All told, I'd say there's about 50 capped drone cells.

[The15thMember]

Drones take longer to develop than workers, 24 days instead of 21, so they just haven't hatched yet.  I would assume they should be able to find the top entrance once they are of flying age.  Drones act pretty dumb sometimes, I'd be surprised if they couldn't figure it out.    

[Michael Bush]

https://bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm
Typically 38 days from the time the egg is laid until drones are flying to DCAs.  Just because they emerge doesn't mean they are mature.