In my part of Georgia we are within spitting distance of full-on spring weather and drones are flying from my hives like hormonal teenage maniacs, ready for their mating flights. (I’m lobbying for “mating flights” to be changed to “dating flights” because really, how many fellas are going to get to third base in their lifetimes?*) While our bees will raise drones all season, they rear the most in the next few months, and these spring drones are arguably the healthiest.

Working bees in the spring is <chef’s kiss> pure joy for me. They are well fed, which I anthropomorphize to mean they are at their happiest. I imagine spring bees gobbling up their choice of fresh nectar and bright pollen feel the same joy I do as a foodie when eating a warm, delicate almond croissant fresh from the oven, or a juicy crimson tomato from the vine — it just puts me in a good mood. Plus they are smelling all that brood pheromone, producing the joyful feelings I get when my kids are home, perhaps? Colonies of bees have a strong drive to rear drones this time of year, and I imagine the smell of that drone brood is also fulfilling to them. I won’t extend the metaphor to say that I enjoy the smell of my son’s dirty socks when he’s in the house, but it just feels good when the boys are around.

Do you know where your green frames are?

During my first inspection coming out of winter, I move the green drone brood frames from position #2 or #8 to the middle of the brood chamber. Research shows that survival to adulthood is higher for brood in the middle of the brood area, and I want to be putting healthy drones out into the world. (Before autumn I shuffle the frames back to #2 or #8, since they are mostly used for honey storage by then.)

Last year I really enjoyed being a student in Penn State’s DUDE program. In one of the online sessions, Robyn Underwood mentioned something she had noticed in her colonies: the frame adjacent to drone brood frames was often chock-full of pollen, even when that pollen frame was toward the center of the brood area where we typically see solid worker brood. Having been made aware of that, I am seeing it more this spring — perhaps you’ll notice it too.

Drone management is different in any “spicy” colonies I’m dealing with. I don’t want defensive bee genes flying around town, and I have at least one colony right now that will be getting a new queen post haste. In the meantime, I am pulling and freezing (or feeding the yummy drone brood to my adorable chickens) those particular green frames. This might make the colony even crankier, but the end justifies the means when it comes to mean bees.

DCA Data

In September 2025 I presented a poster at Apimondia with data that has been posted on mapmydca.com to date. The most interesting finding is that more than half the DCAs pinned were found over tree canopy. This contradicts older beliefs that DCAs occur mainly over open areas surrounded by a windbreak. This year I’m trying to include a UAV flying expedition with every speaking engagement I do during drone season, to add more pins to the map and see if this observation continues.

Using waypoints software** in some UAVs allows the pilot to program flights in advance so you can be sure you’ve surveyed all the area surrounding an apiary — not just the spots where you think DCAs are likely — which is a more thorough and objective way to assess an area. Check it out.

Full as a forager in spring

If you’ve ever watched workers returning from foraging trips loaded down with nectar-filled tummies and bulging thighs, making their final approach to the crowded runway of their landing boards, it can be rather entertaining. They bounce off each other and sometimes off of the front of the hive because they are so full it’s hard to fly in with precision. This goofy behavior makes me chuckle, and reminds me of myself in spring — there’s so much going on that I’m often overloaded and emotionally crash into things while my husband laughs at me for creating the very chaos I’m experiencing. It’s good to laugh along, rather than punch him, and keep in mind that abundance is a good thing.

Wishing you the happiness of a spring forager,

–Julia

Julia Mahood

Master Crafts Beekeeper

julia@mapmydca.com

*Opinions on this vary, but most say that the odds of a drone getting lucky in his lifetime are less than 1 in 1,000

** Check your UAV model for waypoints software. If it doesn’t have it, you can use the third party Maven software. I’ve used it with my DJI Air 2 and it’s a pleasure to operate.

Stephen Fleming has been hunting DCAs for years, specifically on the small Isles of Scilly , an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, where it’s windy, chilly, and frequently rains. The honey bees there are a genetic mix but with predominantly dark bees on two of the islands. They must adapt to what we might consider inhospitable conditions. They fly quite low to the ground, in most cases just three to four meters high. This has made it easy to look for DCAs using lure hoisted by a pole, and to scoop samples with a simple bug catching net.

The most fascinating thing about these DCAs however is behavior that Stephen has seen multiple times now: “I believe a lot of drones are not flying but sitting somewhere and watching and smelling for action. That way they don’t need to return so often for refueling. I have often thought this was the case but at one site this year it was very obvious that many were sitting on brambles and bracken and then rising into action when the lure was hoisted.”

This makes sense in an area where flying can be treacherous. I thought perhaps these bees, being isolated on these islands, had evolved this behavior of resting and waiting, but Robyn Underwood, an apiculture educator at Penn State told me that she once was at a DCA over a corn field where she observed the drones taking flight from the corn stalks when a rock was tossed into the air! People often ask me if the drones are resting in the treetops. I’ve assumed not, just from what I’ve read, but given these observations it makes sense that they could also be resting in the treetops when there’s no action in the sky.

Julia talks with Beekeeping Today about her facination with drone honey bees and especially Drone Congregation Areas, plus her quest to find as many as she can across her Georgia community.

Listen here: https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/drones-and-mapping-drone-congregation-areas-with-julia-mahood-s5-e42/

Spring is upon us and it’s time to hunt for drone congregation areas again! While drones fly in DCAs into early autumn, they are most plentiful in spring and it’s a glorious time to be standing under a DCA, listening to that deep sonorous buzz of bees looking for love. Drones get their name from the unique sound they make while in flight, and the only time I’ve been able to really hear it well is in spring.

If you need a refresher on DCA hunting, read here for how to use your UAV to look for drones. Or, check out this great article in Bee Culture’s June 2021 issue by Theresa Martin about her experience finding a DCA near her apiary. (The article begins on page 70 of the PDF, magazine page 66.)

DCA Hunting Tips:
• To keep your thread from getting caught in the UAV propellers, put your UAV on an elevated surface like a small table or stool, with the thread stretched out below weighted by your lure. When landing, try to fly your UAV forward after the lure hits the ground to stretch it out and avoid propellers.
• I recommend using Temp Queen artificial queen mandibular pheromone as an attractant, but if you keep dead queens in a jar of alcohol, you can use the marinated queen juice as a lure instead. Just put some on a piece of coffee filter or paper towel and put it in a pill bottle with holes drilled into it.
• It’s a good idea to fly over your apiary first, to make sure your lure is attracting drones. (In my experience TempQueen lasts a long time but it will get depleted at some point. Same with marinated queen juice.) Drones will fly up to your UAV regardless of the lure, so you’ll want to look to make sure they’re flying around your lure and not just coming at the UAV.
• Fly your UAV at different times in the afternoon, aiming for the warmest time of the day. Drones might be in an area later than you’d think, so circle back to the same spots in an hour if you don’t have any luck the first time.
• Watch which direction your drones are headed when they fly out, then look on Google Earth Pro for landmarks they might use (a treeline, road or waterway) and note where a drop in elevation occurs, or T junctions in the landmarks. Those are good places to start.

I’m excited to share my newest article published in American Bee Journal—Drones for Drones, A New Way To Find Drone Congregation Areas— published in 2020.

You can read the article online here: https://bluetoad.com/publication/?i=649618&article_id=3600081&view=articleBrowser