Drones
Drones begin to appear in front of the swarm at the end of April or in May, depending on a number of conditions: the strength of the family, the state of the weather, the presence of a bribe, the tightness of the nest, etc. At this time, families with old rams with bribes, honeycomb. Drones are much larger than bees, their body length is 15 mm, weight 200-250 mg. Drones are incapable of performing hive work and collecting food.
Sexual maturity of individual drones reach 12 to 14 days, but the bulk of drones, as evidenced by new scientific data, can be mated from around the 20th day of their life.
The drone is in a hive from a few hundred to three or four thousand or more, depending on the strength of the family, the number of drone honeycombs in the hive, and also the care of the family by the beekeeper.
Families with old uterus breed many drones, and families with young (this year) fetal uterus, with proper care, for the most part do not at all build drone honeycombs and do not excrete the drones.
However, if the framework is narrowed with narrow strips of the honeycomb, then the young bees often create honeycomb honeycombs.
Drones almost as well as bees, get used to the place of their first flight. When the bee does not let a bee into its hive, when they return from flight, they fly off in the apiary and go into other hives with impunity. Until the time of the expulsion of drones comes, they are accepted in all hives, but, as experiments have shown, the drones themselves are more inclined to remain in the families from which they originate.
While the family needs drones, which happens during the swarming season, and there are bribes, the bees feed them.
Drones are very gluttonous, one drone eats feed for 3-4 adult bees, and their larvae eat 5 times more than bees.
Careful experiments, carried out by some researchers, show that 1000 drones eat 100
To deduce less drones, do not put in the nest of tartar honeycombs, but exceptionally good honey combs with a small number of drone cells or artificial wax. It is necessary to carefully store in winter spare honeycombs, which are very valuable material for the apiary.
If there is no stock of bee honeycombs, bees should be given during the bribe whole sheets of artificial wax, waxed on the whole frame. Drone honeycomb can be re-poured onto wax or put in the store for the time of the main bribe.
With the termination of a bribe, bees begin to expel the drones from the hive, or to push them to empty honeycombs, as well as to the walls and bottom of the hive, causing them to stiff from cold or starve to death. Naughty drones gnaw their jaws, tear at their wings and sting their stings.
The expulsion of drones indicates that the honey has stopped. Families that do not have fetal queens or are absolutely bezmatochnye, not only do not expel drones, but even take drones expelled from other hives.
It is very rare that hives with a fetal uterus delay the drones until the fall. Usually the presence of a significant number of drones in any hive in the autumn or at a time when they have long been expelled in all other families indicates that the family is not well off. It happens that in some families mostly weak, drones remain for the winter, but in a very small amount.
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