# How long do Drones live?



## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

How about giving them a few frames of the drones I want and scraping the drone brood they have??


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Drones live about the same as workers, which is six weeks or so in summer and six months or so if they aren't flying every afternoon trying to find queens...

If you are in a hurry you can trap them. Wait until dark and put excluders on the bottom and close off any top entrance (assuming bottom entrances) The next day they will all be trapped in the hives and most will die trying to get out. But then they will have to raise another crop of drones...


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Thanks I will give the excluder a try on the hives I don't want drones from.


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

becareful using the excluders the drones will clog it up trying to get out dont leave them on to long


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

Drones mature in about 14 days after they emerge from the cell and they are viable for mating for about 21 days. After 21 days their sperm degenerates and they are not reliable mates.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

You do have to stay on them. You can also buy the "entrance guards" which are just a small excluder that goes over the entrance, but they clog up even faster. But they are also easier to get to.


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## psisk (Jul 21, 2011)

Where you are located it probably wont make any difference. There is lots of bees in your area So your queens will probably mate with a lot of other drones.


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

psisk said:


> Where you are located it probably wont make any difference. There is lots of bees in your area So your queens will probably mate with a lot of other drones.


You would think so, I have no proof of all these bees. Several miles south and several miles north there are managed colonies. In this area I have no evidence of bees,one of my yards is on a lot of a guy that used to keep bees and he says he hasn't seen a honey bee for years before mine. He has a ton of great forage. Swarm traps are empty and bait in the form of sugar water during a dearth didn't show one honey bee.
I'm sure some must be there but ......?
I'm going to give drone saturation a try.
What's the worst that can happen? I get a little survivor feral gene mixed in?


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## Joe Nelson (Apr 24, 2014)

So they make entrance excluders to block as Michael Bush suggested? I've got a ton of drone and it's messing with my hive. Or are you talking of using a queen excluded on the top of the bottom board?


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## crocodilu911 (Apr 17, 2015)

you know a drone will fly for miles to find queens....I mean, 7 miles south of you , those drones will get to your queens , I am sure. I had 10000 colonies all around palm bay, and there were 3-4 more beekeepers in my area....I would try artificial insemination, or just let them mate .... what you are trying to do is too much trouble, it's like asking a stripper at a packed strip club to only show a few customer the goods....how are you going to do that, when the bar is full of people..... try artificial or let her be. 
I tried the excluder before, and you can't let it on for too long, so you always have to go and monitor the hives, just a big pain in my schedule...now I do natural selection, I split and let them handle it... if they do not mate, and a viable colony is not formed, then I just replace my split on top of the hives and make another one. I stopped worrying about mating them one way or the other. I think that is something that can work for horse farmers, or cattle....I think that as long as I keep my bees in one area, and they always manage to select themselves, and survive my conditions, and thrive...I am doing a good job. besides that, I found out that is also helping me in case I kill some while I work...they are more prone to raising their own successful queens. 
if you manage to make this work, please post it, it might be useful information for the future. thank you


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

I'm not even sure I remember the details excatly when I asked that question (it was a while ago).

I now mostly try to keep hives in the yards near where I mate queens headed by queens I want to produce drones and it works well enough, I'll occasionally bring a bunch of capped drones in from yards further out to add to hives or add a couple frames of brood a shake of bees and a caged virgin. Keeping syrup and pollen patties on hive beyond normal drone producing season works the best by far but it takes commitment.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Just one more point - DO give pollen or pollen substitute patties to the colonies whose drones you are promoting. 

I'd give them one every 4 or 5 days if they will take that much. Also, I like to spread out 1/2 and 1/2 of a patty on opposite ends over the frames, as it gives them plenty of room to access the patty. Drone production tends to go up with the protein boost, as with extra frames of drone comb.

Since you're in Florida, you possibly have drones year-round, either way, I'd still be feeding them. I'd place patties on the top in the spring and summer, in between boxes (such as a 2-deep colony) in the fall and winter.

Joe Nelson - that is what I do to my Queen Cell Starter and Finisher colonies. I put the hive base on the ground, the screened bottom board goes on it, the first excluder goes on the SBB, the the bottom deep box, then either the Cloake Board (which has an excluder and a shut-off board, so its my second excluder), then the imported brood box, then the Cell Builder box, then the honey supers. You could certainly put an excluder under the bottom box to remove drones over night.


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