# Earliest Mature Drones in Piedmont of North Carolina



## kyell (Feb 3, 2012)

I am wondering, about when do the first mature drones start flying in the Piedmont region of NC (well information from any geography would be interesting to me). Also, are the first mature drones out there generally from darker varieties of bees like Carniolans or Caucasians?

Thanks,
Kyle


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Kyle,
The earliest I have seen adult drones in Horry County, SC, not far from Myrtle Beach, is mid March.

I don't know which kind of bees throws the first drones. Are you basing your choice of bee depending on which one produces drones the earliest? Are you looking into raising queens? Just curious about your questions. Where are you coming from in asking? Maybe if we knew more about the nature of your question better answers could be given.


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## CardsBees (May 14, 2013)

I would agree w mid March. Some I know split as early as Valentines day. I keep Russians, Italians, and combinations thereof. Haven't noted drone timing differences.


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## My-smokepole (Apr 14, 2008)

Sqkcrk how far is your yards from myrtle beach?I have a Aunt in Surf Side just south of there. Been wondering for some time.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Pretty hard to give a definitive date. Similar to asking what's the first swarm date? Each year is different, and this one might be particularly odd. I generally target the first round of queens by end of March. 2015 was much later given the really cold March we had.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

My-smokepole said:


> Sqkcrk how far is your yards from myrtle beach?I have a Aunt in Surf Side just south of there. Been wondering for some time.


Aynor. 30 miles from Surf Side.


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## My-smokepole (Apr 14, 2008)

I wish I had realize I would have stop by. Just got back. Now back to your regular Channel


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## kyell (Feb 3, 2012)

sqkcrk said:


> I don't know which kind of bees throws the first drones. Are you basing your choice of bee depending on which one produces drones the earliest? Are you looking into raising queens? Just curious about your questions. Where are you coming from in asking? Maybe if we knew more about the nature of your question better answers could be given.


Yep, I am wondering how early I might do some splits which have the possibility of well mated queens. I have never really paid attention to when the drones 'return' so to speak. In the past I expanded my apiary during the main flow, but figured that I should start doing this earlier in the year.

Also, I wondered if there were anything I should be concerned with regarding the race of honey bees that start raising drones the earliest. Would the ones that start raising drones first be the swarmiest?

Thanks


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

Generally speaking, the second half of March. But if you pound on the pollen sub early, you could get drones by mid or end of February. Then it's just a question of whether the weather holds up for good matings.



kyell said:


> Would the ones that start raising drones first be the swarmiest?


I don't know if I would say they are the "swarmiest", but they usually are the first to swarm that given year. Not necessarily a genetic predisposition to swarm, although it could be, but more commonly because it's the largest, most robust colony of the yard.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Dones need 14 days after they hatch to be "mature". According to my notes from last year, I had capped drone brood in all my hives by March 22. Noted drone bees in hives on April 4, and one hive went into swarm mode on April 15. (this was in Smithfield, VA near Virginia Beach)

You should be able to gauge your own hives readiness by taking note of when you see drone brood and then calculating when they will hatch and add 14 days to that. Then you can do the math on a queen calendar for when you should graft, or pull the queen for them to make emergency cells (that's how I raise queens in my TBH's).


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

"Start grafting when you see drone pupae with blue eyes." To paraphrase Larry Conner
Seems like a good time to make splits that you want to raise their own queen too.


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## RSWOODBEE (Jul 30, 2011)

Feb 5 2016 saw drones flying from one. Hive sure seem quite early for here. Maybe an eary spring.


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## kyell (Feb 3, 2012)

RSWOODBEE said:


> Feb 5 2016 saw drones flying from one. Hive sure seem quite early for here. Maybe an eary spring.


Sounds great. I have not seen much flying recently myself. The last few weekends have been very cold or wet or both, and I don't get home early enough in the evenings to see any of the activity on these nice warm days we have had since the ice of Monday night. Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to see if we are getting some drones here a few counties west of you. Need to do some other work in the apiary too, but I hear we might have another wet weekend 

Thanks,
Kyle


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## Jason (Nov 19, 2010)

20 Feb - Saw drones at hive entrances on our recent warm Saturday here in Durham county (very near Person county line).


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## kyell (Feb 3, 2012)

Jason said:


> 20 Feb - Saw drones at hive entrances on our recent warm Saturday here in Durham county (very near Person county line).


That is great! I was able to watch my hives' entrances a bit this past weekend, but saw no drones. Doesn't mean they aren't in the hive somewhere of course  I did open up a couple of hives too, but was only giving these two lighter hives a bit of extra frames of honey. (Not that they need it now since the maple should be blooming, but since I wasn't planning to package this honey for myself, I thought I'd give it to them.) I did not see any drones when I opened the top of the hive either, but usually don't see the majority of drones up top anyhow.

Thanks,
Kyle


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## paul dyar (Mar 24, 2014)

I have had drones flying for at least a week.


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