drone brood in super help....

[Cuckmere couple]

a colony with a 3 year old queen
8-9 frames of brood and a super with QE
5 q cups each with egg last week knocked down
today another 5-8 q cups with eggs, left one and moved queen to a nuc
inspected super and found
3 middle super frames had drone brood, 20-30 cellsi n middle frame, fewer in others
3-4 cells had 2 eggs in

QE functioning fine

could a laying worker be at work (all drone above QE) despite active established queen below and charged q cells

could the workers have moved that volume of eggs up, including placing two in some cells

advice and explanation very welcome please

 

[Codford]

Sounds like a possible DLW as a result of a failing Queen ?

 

[Ian123]

Empty drone cells are a draw for the queen she’s slipped up there and laid. Years ago a lot of older beeks would use drone in supers and yes plenty of queens slipped through the excluder.

 

[polomadh]

It is difficult to understand completely the scenario, without being there with you, bit how about the scenario where a virgin queen somehow got above the QE, and has not been able to get out and mate, so is now laying drones.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

thanks all

my mentor and ex chair of our association is baffled too as weve inspected

i moved the queen during this inspection (who is 3 years old but has been superb and is still laying incredibly well, slab brood on most of 8-9 frames) because id found couple of q cells with eggs 2 of which i have left to develop

so really odd that the supers above had been drawn for drones and 20-30 cells have brood in them and some with 2 eggs

his advice is to shake out the super so if a DLW or virgin is up there (cant see how as supers only just gone on) cant get below to destroy the q cells

seems odd to me

 

[Buzz Bee Babe]

Excuse my newbie question but what is a DLW?
Thanks in advance

 

[Repwoc]

Excuse my newbie question but what is a DLW?
Thanks in advance

Drone Laying Worker.

 

[Buzz Bee Babe]

Ah of course, thank you Repwoc.

 

[pargyle]

Excuse my newbie question but what is a DLW?
Thanks in advance

There's a really useful glossary of beekeeping terms/words here:

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27210

Unfortunately, DLW appears to be missing although Laying Worker is in there.

 

[Buzz Bee Babe]

I appreciate that Pargyle, very helpful. Thank you

 

[Erichalfbee]

There's a really useful glossary of beekeeping terms/words here:

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27210

Unfortunately, DLW appears to be missing although Laying Worker is in there.

Yes, probably because workers can lay only drones

 

[Swarm]

Should be just LW, for laying workers. The only thing you will get is drones. DLQ indicates a problem with a queen.

Edit: beat me to it.

 

[Madge]

Yes, probably because workers can lay only drones

Except for capensis! And, apparently, about about 1% of our Western honey-bee workers - but the other bees will destroy or eat those eggs.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Except for capensis! And, apparently, about about 1% of our Western honey-bee workers - but the other bees will destroy or eat those eggs.

I wondered whether anybody might mention that. It’s called Thelytoky

 

[Murox]

Never knew that was possible with bees, learn something knew everyday. Thanks.

 

[MerryBee]

I inspected one of my hives yesterday and found about 6 recently capped drone cells in the super. I dont believe the queen had been up there as she is clearly laying like a train in the brood box., and there was no worker brood in the super. I concluded that this was an errant laying worker, and for some reason the "egg police" hadnt cleared them out as they usually do, we are told. But then, if that errant laying worker had laid a few in the brood box, nobody would have noticed.

 

[Popparand]

It's also possible that the queen is slimming down a bit (in spite of still laying well) and squeezing through the QE. Maybe it's because the brood box is too crowded? Or the QE is becoming distorted. Is it one of those plastic QE's with slots? I've had failures with those.

 

[Ian123]

Queens love laying in drone cells it’s a complete draw for them as I said earlier she’s nipped up and laid in the cells. Most old excluders have a few dents dings and distortions, if all is well below the excluder it’s rarely more complicated than that.

 

[beeno]

so really odd that the supers above had been drawn for drones and 20-30 cells have brood in them and some with 2 eggs

Not odd at all! Did you not have the same problem last year or was it someone else? How do you stack your boxes when inspecting? If you put brood box on top of super with no QX in between then your luck will run out eventually. Drone brood in drone cells - LW are not selective in that respect. I left the QX off my super for a week to encourage the workers to move the honey up and Q duly came up and laid up some drone brood, but no worker brood. I put a second brood box on too. They have drawn six frames out in the brood box so far whilst at the same time filling the super. Clever little bees.

 

[Ian123]

It’s got the chair of the association baffled though