I was called to get a swarm from a yard ornament last week. When I got there, the swarm was gone, but the lady showed me the hive where they came from. It was in the wall of a shed about 20' away. There was a lot of activity with hundreds of bees buzzing about the entrance. I went over for a closer look and for a second I thought I was seeing a new kind of bee I'd never seen before. These suckers were huge! I watched for awhile and noticed in the flurry of bees a few "normal" field bees with pollen on them going in. I realized I was seeing drones by the hundreds!
I've never seen so many drones in flight before. I was wondering, did the old hive have one (or more?) virgin queen that was attracting all the drones? My golden retreiver was in heat recently, and every male dog that got her scent was hanging around. Do drones do the same thing? I've never seen this many drones in a hive, so I'm guessing they were from neighboring hives. Anyone else seen this?
