# Setting up Drone Colonies



## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

Hives won't raise drones unless there are plenty of resources available. So if you add too many they'll probably just ignore them or fill them with honey. Each one holds a lot of drone cells, so you'll probably only need one per hive body.

What I do is simply place medium frames between deeps (or shallow frames between medium). The bees will build it out nicely, usually all as drone comb. No need to buy special frames.

-Tim


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

tarheit said:


> Hives won't raise drones unless there are plenty of resources available. So if you add too many they'll probably just ignore them or fill them with honey. Each one holds a lot of drone cells, so you'll probably only need one per hive body.
> 
> What I do is simply place medium frames between deeps (or shallow frames between medium). The bees will build it out nicely, usually all as drone comb. No need to buy special frames.
> 
> -Tim


I did the same thing. I had some med's that I had started with just a 1" strip of foundation for cut comb. Some of these frames ended up with some pollen in them so I just decided to use them as drone frames. Nearly all the cells were drawn out as drone cells and it works great.

I try to be selective about the drone colonies I use too. I don't put drone frames in every colony. I try to find 6-12 that I think are my best. (Other than my breeder colonies.) Those colonies get the drone frames.


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## Dubhe (Jul 19, 2007)

Quick question:

Can you create & mate queens within the same yard, or is this likely to result in inferior stock due to inbreeding?


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

Inbreeding doesn't become a problem as quickly as you might think. Remember that each queen mates with multiple drones, so even a few hives in one yard can represent dozens of families.

It's a fairly easy think to watch out for. A queen that is too inbred will have a spotty brood pattern due to matching sex alleles. That of course is not the only problem with lack of diversity in a population, but it's easy to measure. If I had a small apiary and was raising my own queens, I'd just be sure to bring in some new stock each year to avoid or minimize the problem.

-Tim


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## Dubhe (Jul 19, 2007)

Thanks Tim. It's been a long time since I've had to play around with Punnett Squares, but in a small yard, is it more likely than not, that produced queens will be mating with drones from the same yard? Would it be better to move the mating nucs closer to a yard(s) from different lines?


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## Robert Hawkins (May 27, 2005)

Chef, Two. From my observation the bees like to build about 20% drone comb. 

Dubhe, No. The queen tends to find drones from a distance. She wants the same diversity that you do. What queen wants to bee inbred, eh?

Hawk


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Since Clarance Collison's work shows that they will make the same number of drones no matter what you do:

Levin, C.G. and C.H. Collison. 1991. The production and distribution of drone comb and brood in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies as affected by freedom in comb construction. BeeScience 1: 203-211.

It seems like the only way to get more drones from a particular queen is to keep taking drone brood out of that hive and giving it to other hives so they won't raise their own and that one will raise more.


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## WG Bee Farm (Jan 29, 2005)

*Setting Up Drone Colonies*

It is possible to generate additional drones by raising a queen and not allowing her to mate.
You will have to add additional worker brood to this specialized colony just to keep them alive. But, you will get plenty of drones.
Frank


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## TwT (Aug 5, 2004)

WG Bee Farm said:


> It is possible to generate additional drones by raising a queen and not allowing her to mate.
> You will have to add additional worker brood to this specialized colony just to keep them alive. But, you will get plenty of drones.
> Frank


thats make me think of a question about drones, if a brood queens drones are from her line then what line is a laying workers drones from the same hive if the queen was lost and no new queen, what bred would the drones be and would they be able to mate??? ,,,,,,I know its confusing the way I wrote it but Im confused anyway


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## WG Bee Farm (Jan 29, 2005)

In most researchers opinions, drones generated from laying workers are the hives last chance to carry on its genetic material.

The problem with intentionally generating laying workers for drone production lays in the following :
1) laying workers lay drones into worker cells generating smaller undersized drones. They are not feed as well and taken care of as well as normal drones.
2.) These drones are not as strong and robust as drones reared under optimum conditions, and even though they will function as complete drones. They will "probably" not be able to compete adequately with other drones.

IMO it is not a good plan to generate drones from laying workers with the intent of using them as mating material.
It is better to create strong healthy hives that want to rear drones, that are healthy and strong. As Sue Cobey and Marla Spivak state--"we need to rethink our wording on drones and instead they should be called STUDS"-- When chosing your studs for mating you should chose the strongest, most virile, and best genetics available.
Frank


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## Tommy (Oct 9, 2005)

Frank you have a PM.


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