Catching drones for instrumental insemination- Peak drone production in Missouri 

I’ve got my colonies set to minimize drift amongst trees and obvious landmarks. After testing the high scoring colonies that I really like, I put those entrance includer/excluders on them during peak drone flying time. (It varies with temp and daylight hours but usually late afternoon or early evening)The returning workers can run right through it, but the drones are stuck outside where I pick them up and put in those drone holding cages made out of excluder. When we chatted and I said they were coming home from the “singles bar,” and the door was locked, that’s what I was talking about lol!

This is the method I learned from Sue Cobey when she taught me instrumental insemination. Some people confine them in their own colony or flight cages to make sure they are from that particular colony. That makes sense to me, but they aren’t allowed out of the colony to poop. (Not sure if they do in flight cages, it’s a small screened area on top of the hive) The returning drones are cleaned out, flight ready drones, perfect for extraction.

I’ve got some new interviews coming up soon. I’m pretty stoked about them. Stay tuned.