Dropdown list: when does it databind?

Hello all,
I have a page that I access using page?a=e&hid=<a number>.
When the page loads, it queries a DB to populate some list items on drop downs, and match the drop down to an item, select the item.
When the page loads however, it returns dropdown.items.count = 0 even though there are items in the drop down.
My code is as follows:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load Dim strAction As String strAction = Request.QueryString("a") intHid = Request.QueryString("hid") If Not Page.IsPostBack Then If strAction = "e" Then loadEdit(intHid) End If End If Dim rdr As SqlDataReader = objCmd.ExecuteReader rdr.Read() lblPropertyIDNum.Text = rdr("PropertyID").ToString txtPropertyName.Text = rdr(" ...