Drone behavior in flo frames

Flow Hive
1

I have observed drones crawling in and out of the empty flow frame comb, Why ?

2

They are just checking things out. Who knows, there might be food in there…

3

Yep. Looking for grub
I presume, then, that you haven’t placed an excluder. It might be a good idea once the bees start waxing the frames

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4

Hello Dee
I have an excluder in place.
I installed a new 5 frame neuc over two months ago and the bees have filled the three empty frames that were added to make an eight frame brood box. The Floframe box was put in place 2 weeks ago. The hive population has in increased just by the number of bees coming and going.
When I open the end door to expose the floframes I see many drones all over and crawling in and out of individual cells.
No honey yet.

5

OK, then a couple of possibilities:

  1. Your queen excluder is defective. Wires and plastic can bend out of shape, and it only takes 1mm of extra space to let a drone through.
  2. Your hive has a crown board/inner cover with a top entrance cut into it.
  3. Your hive has some 5 or 6mm gaps somewhere above the queen excluder.
  4. What you are seeing as drones are actually workers - I am not wanting to say you can’t tell a drone from a worker, but it can be hard when you are starting out.
6

Yes. You need to track this down. If your drones can get into the flow frames through a QX then so can your queen

7

You guys are going to have a laugh !
I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPECSAVERS .
Dawn twigged me, I found a chair after looking up images of honey bee hieracy and placed the chair up close to the end viewing area with my specs on.
Yes they are workers with horizontal stripes across thier abdomens.
When they fold thier wing back and inside a cell they look black.
Whew !!!
Its good to get educated.
Well what are the worker doing crawling in and out of the flo cells !

2 Likes
8

Working…

; -D

9

ROFL, thank you! I love it when I what I know what I might have done when I was starting can help somebody else… :smile:

Glad your foragers have found the storage comb. :wink:

10

They are exploring, seeing what needs filling with wax or propolis, plotting with their sisters (as sisters do) on chasing beetles or other undesirables out, etc. You may not get any honey this season, but you will learn a lot and get a lot of pleasure from watching the bees in their special harmony.

11

Thanks girls for sorting me out.

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