Drifting Drones

Last week I put a sealed QC into a mininuc and today it was due to hatch. After giving the mininuc a feed this afternoon and removing the now empty QC (it was enclosed in a QC protector so easy to remove), I sat in front of it for 15 or twenty minutes just to watch.

The cupful of bees which were put into the mininuc contained a few drones but no more than a handful. But as I sat and watched I lost count of the number of drones which flew up and disappeared inside. I glanced over to another of my hives a few metres away to see if the same thing was happening but no - just the mininuc.

Not being very experienced at queen rearing I'd be interested to hear if this a common occurrence. Can drones sniff out a virgin queen and pay her a house visit so to speak? Could they be "encouraging" her to depart on her mating flight? All my other hives are queenright so it makes me think the drones are detecting something in the mininuc that the other colonies don't possess.

Gerry

Dunno, but I had lots of drones hanging around a hive with a virgin queen with their tongues hanging out (metaphorically.)

I've noticed drones hanging around a hive with a virgin inside too. They are obviously looking for a good time, not realising that they die with a smile on their faces - so to speak. Drones will drift and stay in other hives too. I have one colony with very light coloured drones and I find them in all of my other colonies with darker bees when I do my inspections.
Drones have bigger eyes that workers or queens; as well as sniffing out a mate, they must use their eyes to visualise her too during mating flights or Mother Nature would not have invested in good eyes.