It has begun ... already?!!! I thought that bees will evict Drones in Autumn but not in my top bar hives! They already started killing them and kicking them out even though its only July and the forage is still ok. This could be a very good thing for the colony because at this time of the year Drones are the ones spreading Varroa (which hang on their bodies) from one hive to the next. No Drones No extra Varroa! Not too bad ;)
Just for the record; my conventional beekeeper friends have not yet seen this behaviour in their hives.
I have noticed yesterday evening that worker bees were after the Drones, killing them.
This morning I found this scene; Lots of dead Drones!
Worker Bees cleaning up the mess
The weather is glorious these days indeed but we do need some rain soon
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI'm a TBH keeper in NE Florida and our girls started culling the drones yesterday including pupae. Glad to hear our bees aren't the only ones thinking summer is pretty much over :)