Sunday, August 5, 2012

Drone Wars

I make sure to everyday check on the beehives. I was surprised to see bees hanging on the hive entrance today. Bees sometimes do this when its too hot in the hive to cool it down and is known as Bearding. But today was very cloudy and cold! So i came closer to the entrance to have a better look .... these were not working bees "bearding" but Drones trying desperatelly to get back into the hive! At the end of the season working bees kick all Drones out of the hive and those who resist they kill in the hive as you can see in one of the photos (dead Drones on the hive floor). I can see through the hive window how working bees drag living drones towards the entrance.
Iv build a Periscope entrance on this hive and in this case I see a downfall in its design; the bees kicked out the dead drones into the Periscope entrance clogging it. On top of that the living drones are clogging it further so none of the worker bees could get out of the hive and the only oppening to the hive ventilation is totally closed!
As you can see in the photo iv used a stick to remove the tick layer of dead drones clogging the entrance. Immediatelly after the Working Bees started flying out and fighting off the desperate Drones. I can see many dad Drones on the ground infront of the hive too.

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