New member and a funny problem

[SRJ]

G'Day!
Another Down under beekeeper just joined. Looks like a huge forum you've got here, looking forward to trawling through and reading up, need to brush up on a few things!
I live in SA and currently have only 3 hives, until yesterday they were in the back yard but had to move them since next door is planning construction and I don't want the bees to get upset by the noise and attack the workers.

Anyway to the point, something strange happened lately, not sure if it's a problem I'd just like to know what folks here think (I have done a search on here but couldn't find a similar story) Last night I moved 2 of my hives to a larger property (better hive access!  ), further from people etc etc. First hive I moved was the youngest and healthiest, I just put an empty honey super on last week and the hive was a swarm this time last year.
The other one I moved was my oldest, and my first ever hive. It must be getting to about 4 years old I guess. It has 2 brood boxes only at the moment, I've been lazy lately and haven't got around to looking at it after winter. The move went reasonably well, they didn't spend too much time in transit and they seemed happy enough in their new spot.
Fast forward to tonight when I moved the last hive (the most difficult to move and most aggresive bees too  ) When I got to the new site, I found that one of the hives (the oldest one) had many many dead drones right outside the entrance. I'd never seen so many drones in one place. There must have been many hundrends if not thousands, literally a pile. It was 100% dead drones, no workers from what I could see.

This was all in the dark so the workers were no longer active. Two questions; Should I be worried about the number of drones in that hive? And why were they there? (dead on the outside)
My first thoughts were it's because the queen is getting old, she may not be as fertile as she used to be and is laying alot of drone brood. And Somehow the move triggered the colony to eject all of the drones for some reason  Could I have stressed them?

I haven't had a chance to look inside, nor was I there during the day when all the action was happening. Seems like an odd time of year for them to be ejecting the drones, coming into spring and all.

Anyway I'm keen to hear what others think, and if I should be worried about this. Oh and before I forget, this hive is due for some major work in the near future. It's a long story but basically the top box is full depth but the frames inside are 3/4...don't ask 
I know every frame in the top box will have comb hanging off the bottom joined to the bottom frames, I've seen it before. Therefore it's going to be a big job to clean it up. If this drone thing is a problem should I hold off on disturbing the hive so much?

I'll stop typing now! 
Thanks in advance

[iddee]

Disturb the hive. Get inside and tell us what you find. Then we may can help you. Outside observation will not guarantee a correct diagnosis with this problem.

[OzBuzz]

I'm going to take a punt and suggest that comb hanging from the frames in the top super was mostly drone brood - i'd probably hazard a guess and say that that comb got damaged in transit so the cleaning out of the drones was probably just removing the unhatched drones from the damaged comb - did the drones out the front look old? that's only a guess though! you won't know for sure until, as iddee said, you get in there and take a look.

[SRJ]

Fair point, will have a look inside ASAP and report back 

[Lone]

Typical aussie..yak yak yak...  Welcome from North Queensland.

Lone

[OzBuzz]

Fair point, will have a look inside ASAP and report back 

How did you go?

[Mardak]

All us "Aussies" seem to yack a lot, yet we are all so helpful to each other in these forums. Great experience to be a part of it. Thanks BEEMASTER. It is a real pleasure to yap with so many other well mannered individuals. Keep up your beeks with pride and enjoy the joys and all the other stuff that happens with bees.

[SRJ]

Fair point, will have a look inside ASAP and report back 

How did you go?

Haven't been able to get there yet  Not having them right outside the back door anymore is inconvenient, but hey what can you do. I will definitely be going to sort them out tomorrow or Wednesday if weather permits. I've got a 3/4 depth box to replace the full depth that's there, will clean out the burr comb while I'm there as well. Will take the camera as well 

Watch this space

[SRJ]

Yep I got down there today, had a look. Unfortunately within 5 minutes my gloves were too covered in honey to even think about touching the camera  Take my gloves off you say? no thank you, I couldn't get my smoker together so no smoke and these aren't the most docile of bees, got stung quite a few times through my gloves and suit.

I was amazed the lid came off quite easily, a bit of burr comb inside the lid above my inner cover. Under that though was a complete and total mess of comb. Combo of not having touched this hive in about 4 months, wrong sized frames for the box and 1 frame short for all that time meant burr comb everywhere, most frames were drawn out a short way, then another completely new sheet of comb was built from the top bar hanging next to the foundation  Plus at the bottom of every frame was cross comb in the space below, full of honey and drone brood. All I can say is I'm glad I took a knife and a 25L bucket with a lid.

Managed to get all the frames out and clean them up somewhat, no smoke mind you so it was a hell of a racket. As I cleaned up the frame, dumping all the burr comb into the bucket, I placed it into the new, correctly sized box. Once that was full I had room for 1 more frame, put that in and put the box back on, sealed it all up and walked away.

Oh yeah...back to the point  The colony looks in great shape, no wax moth, lots of busy workers, plenty of honey (could have even extracted half the frames) All looked well and barely any drones (all dead at the entrance) but some drone brood. There was only 1 frame of normal brood in the top box (no excluder) and it had a good tight pattern, so queenie is okay as well. Didn't go down into the brood box, not today after what I just did.

Had a quick look into my other two and one needs about the same thing as I did today done to it, and the other is about as good as I could wish for; was a swarm from last year and I only put a box full of new frames and an excluder on two weeks ago. They are "Manley" sized frames with plastic foundation, every one was completely drawn out and nearly fully capped!  Glad I bought an extractor the other day, going to need it next week 

Yak yak yak yak yak 

[Lone]

Hello S "yak"J,

That is a good story, something like when I was in my first year and we caught a swarm and I caught the flu. So I left it to the fellas to house the bees, and they put them in a 10 frame box with only 7 frames in it "to give them more room".  Come inspection day, and you've never seen such a grand castle with tunnels, ramparts, secret passages, moats, and rooms galore.  It was  a mess. 
I can't think of any reason for your dead drones other than what you've thought of already. I would advise you to invest in a box of redheads, though!
 But it sounds like things are roaring ahead.  Conditions get so bad where my bees are, we throw a party when we see a dead drone.
 Let us know whether your extractor works or not.  That reminds me of our first extraction too.  I pulled frames, one bloke worked the steam knife, and another worked the extractor.  He was so enthusiastic he spun the wax clean out of the frames.  Sometimes I wonder why I keep my offsiders.

Lone

[swiftden]

Gday mate,

Another relatively new beekeeper here. Also in SA where abouts are you mate?

Im in Tailem Bend.

Regards
Allan

[SRJ]

How's it going 

I'm not too far south of Adelaide city, so a fair way away from you  What kind of flowers do you have down there? I'm kicking myself that I didn't get more hives together last year; right now not too far from me there is a massive orchard in full bloom, I think it may be apples or pears. If only I had a decent number of hives to offer a pollination service 

[swiftden]

I have about 30 hives hope to have double that by end of season.
Lots a mallee trees, onion weed(acres and acres of it around here) , pig face, daisies, etc plenty flowering around here at the moment.

[SRJ]

That's a fair few, 10 times more than me hehe. Sounds like you've got a good honey flow ahead of you! I only get a mix of whatever is blooming around me, right now there's quite a few gums in full bloom, tea tree(?) and whatever else people have in their gardens.

Enjoy the season!