Drone Brood

GillGM · May 9, 2013

Inspecting today I had a normal looking colony over five frames, sealed brood, lavae and eggs but on a parallel frame, and laid over the seven days since I last inspected, to one side of the spherical colony was a whole frame of drone cells. What's going on?

enrico · May 9, 2013

Sounds stupid but you can get drone foundation. Are you SURE that it was normal cell foundation. Just a thought! It does sound unusual to get a whole frame of drone in the way you describe. Useful for culling for varroa though! Just maybe your queen knows something you don't and needs men around!

For want of a better word · May 9, 2013

enrico said:
Sounds stupid but you can get drone foundation. Are you SURE that it was normal cell foundation. Just a thought! It does sound unusual to get a whole frame of drone in the way you describe. Useful for culling for varroa though! Just maybe your queen knows something you don't and needs men around!

Not a good idea to cull drones at the moment.... needed for mating?

richardbees · May 9, 2013

Gill

I had exactly the same when I inspected a colony about 2 weeks ago....it wasn't a full frame of drone brood but a solid patch the same size as the patches of 'normal' brood on the other frames.
When I inspected last week, after all this good weather, there was 'normal' brood fully across seven frames with no more than average drone brood.

I think the bees had gone into emergency survival mode, after the crap April shortening the mating season, knowing the colony needed a supply of drones to survive.

just a thought....but there's always a reason for unexpected behaviour with bees

Richard