Working drones?

[RandyMM]

I caught a swarm monday and checked them on Wednesday. They looked good, comb coming right along, bees seemed calm etc.. I had fed them a bottle of honey. I've been enjoying watching them. My question is with the drones. They are coming and going like their working or something? Is that normal while a hive is getting established? Are they getting water or working flowers? What's going on?

Thanks, Randy

[FRAMEshift]

They are going out to find a queen to mate with.

 I've never heard of drones doing any foraging.  They have occasionally been observed helping to heat brood when there aren't enough nurse bees around.  But when more nurse bees are introduced, the drones are pushed out of the brood nest.

[sc-bee]

Just trying to do what drones try to do

[FRAMEshift]

I had fed them a bottle of honey.

It's great to feed honey from a known source.  But you don't want to trust commercial grocery store honey because it could contain spores for American Foul Brood.

[RandyMM]

Thanks for the advice....that's exactly where the honey came from, sigh.

[FRAMEshift]

If you don't have other hives to provide honey, I would suggest that you feed sugar water.   My simple recipe is to bring 2 gallons of water to a boil in a large pot.  Pour the water into a 5 gallon bucket and immediately add a 25 lb. bag of sugar.  Stir for about a minute until it goes clear.  This will give you 3.7 gallons of a 3:2 sugar syrup.  I add 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to drop the pH.  This recipe will not grow bacteria and does not mold easily.  Should last for several months and will give your swarm enough energy to get all their comb drawn and get through any summer dearth.

[sc-bee]

If you need less syrup just remember:

A pints a pound the world around! 1lb sugar 1 pt of water = 1:1  2lb sugar 1pt water = 2:1 etc.