Late drones in NZ

[ikwezinz]

I have three hives going into winter in New Zealand, we are having a very mild autumn, two of my hives seem to be hunkering down for Winter, still foraging etc though.

One of my hives however has a fair amount of drones, only seen them in the past 3 weeks, is this normal in a mild start to winter, just strange the other two have not done the same?

[ikwezinz]

Addition to the above, I managed to get an inspection done between the rain, I have supercedure queen cell, but yet loads of brood and eggs. None of my other hives have drones, so a new queen will have a slim chance of a good mating, it is too late for buying a queen, so any suggestions ? Do I let nature take her course

[AllenF]

See if the bees can figure it out, ya let nature take it's course.   Maybe you will have good weather for a mating flight before it turns cold.