[Laurieston]

What a strange year we're having.  Today the girls were very busy, collecting pollen and dashing round about.  Then I got buzzed, sounded like a summer buzz and yes, it was a drone!  Max temp today was a comfortable 13 degrees - not very christmasy (sp?) - and makes me wonder what is happening inside.

Can it be that this drone is still alive from the summer, or could it be a new one?  Any ideas?

[waterbuffalofarmer]

For a moment I thought you meant an army drone it is weird isn't it? I only hope when the cold weather comes in it won't wipe em out.

[cloddopper]

What a strange year we're having.  Today the girls were very busy, collecting pollen and dashing round about.  Then I got buzzed, sounded like a summer buzz and yes, it was a drone!  Max temp today was a comfortable 13 degrees - not very christmasy (sp?) - and makes me wonder what is happening inside.

Can it be that this drone is still alive from the summer, or could it be a new one?  Any ideas?

 At 10 o C the bees fly  so they are being normal.

The only reason the bees go dormant in our climates  is that the weather cools below 10 o C  and as there is not enough pollen & nectar for them to collect on the warmer days they consume their stores .

Only the newly hatched bees in a colder winter survive , the drones  are usually non existent . they get made in mid March .

The  life of a bee is something like 6 weeks save for the queen in winter ( I seem to recall that it can stretch to 8 weeks, if the hive is free of pests & disease.
 In summer  if there is heather nectar , it can be as little a 3 weeks as they get battered to bits  in the heathers due to the wind being low to the ground but by this time the queen has been laying her own weight in eggs each day for several weeks so i's not too much of a problem . 

Here is how I view it and what I'd do :-

 The queen tends to interrupt her laying when the supply of nectar & pollen stops , in mild years when there are flowers all year round she can lay all year round .

 This can be a problem for a queen only receives enough sperm from several drones during her mating flight for so many eggs . Once she gets near to the end of that sperm supply she becomes barren .

 You may need to think about re queening with her in mid April or early May depending onhow the flowers arrive on the scene & how warm it becomes by setting up a Neuc box using three frames out the main hive . One capped brood ,one eggs and one stores plus enough drawn frames to fill the Neuc box ,some bees on th frames you use & also get a few more by placing the Neuc  where the hive was for an hour or so then stop th hive up . Then take it 3 miles away  for them to settle down  . Another way you can get the bees is to brush bees of frames using some long grass ... using a purchased bristle bee brush tends to be a disease spreader .

Cneckthe neuc to see that they bees have dwawn and made a queen cell , , leave the biggest ,  cut off all the others.
Then once the new queen has hatched in the Neuc and is giving new capped brood ( about three more weeks ) in the Neuc unite the old hive and the Neuc using the newspaper with nail holes in it between brood boxes method without a Queen excluder between the brood boxes .
The younger more fertile queen will send out the death sentence to the old queen  . After 14 days take the hive back to one brood box unless you like the idea & heavy work of running them as double brood boxes .