Drone cells hanging from bottom of frame, what should I do?

[andyj301]

Hi

Please could I get some advice on what to do with drone cells and some bizarre formations of brood comb. I checked eggs, there is only one in each cell. Only bought the nuc last year. I read some advice on defra site which advises requeening, but I have only seen the queen one time last year. There is a pic of the brood hanging from the bottom of the frame if that helps, copy/paste the quoted text below

i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p738/andyj301/P1020421_zps5d560c62.jpg

 

[Russel]

Hi

Please could I get some advice on what to do with drone cells and some bizarre formations of brood comb. I checked eggs, there is only one in each cell. Only bought the nuc last year. I read some advice on defra site which advises requeening, but I have only seen the queen one time last year. There is a pic of the brood hanging from the bottom of the frame if that helps, copy/paste the quoted text below

Do you have worker capped broad too, drones will be produced when the bees are either getting ready to swarm or as part of their normal activities, no drones no bees.

If you have OMF's then this is one of the drawbacks/benefits(?), they draw down to them.

 

[bobster]

It looks to me like your bees are just making some extra larger comb for Drones.

With nationals the foundation cell "size" is not conducive to making drone cells. So the bees may try and make them where they can.

This time of year a colony will try and make drone cells for procreation.

What you need to watch out for are QCs around the bottom of your frames. There are many excellent resources on this on this forum regarding QCs and what to do.

http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a012queencells.pdf

FWIW in my hive the bees built one piece of larger cell size comb and filled it full of drone brood!.


Bobster

 

[Tom Bick]

Bees like to have drones in the hive and up to 20% drone comb given the chance its only some beekeepers and bad teaching who think drones are a bad thing.

The bees are often so keen to get drones into the hive they are forced to build drone comb in odd places one is on the bottom of frames and into the often too big a gap at the bottom of the floor causing problems when inspecting.

Another thing that can cause this extra comb building is the bees are a bit pushed for space and are trying to use every available square inch.

 

[Cazza]

This may be perfectly normal as Tom says. It depends on the amount of worker brood also present. Can you tell us about that?
Cazza

 

[andyj301]

Thank you all for your replies. I do have capped worker brood as well. The previous time I inspected, about a fortnight ago, there was no noticable drone cells, but there did appear to be a single queen cell hanging from the bottom of one of the frames (swarm cell?). I didn't check the q/c during the inspection this morning, but the number of bees overall seems to have increased.

 

[andyj301]

What you need to watch out for are QCs around the bottom of your frames. There are many excellent resources on this on this forum regarding QCs and what to do.

wbka.com/pdf/a012queencells.pdf

This is a really useful guide. It seems my single q/c is likely a practice cup

 

[Russel]

Thank you all for your replies. I do have capped worker brood as well. The previous time I inspected, about a fortnight ago, there was no noticable drone cells, but there did appear to be a single queen cell hanging from the bottom of one of the frames (swarm cell?). I didn't check the q/c during the inspection this morning, but the number of bees overall seems to have increased.

The books tell you a QC here or a QC there means this or that, but as we are dealing with females that don't read books many of which are written by males, QC frame postion is not that simple in my short BK experience.
Just this Friday the SBI went though several colonies, in two of the colonies we found multiple cups and charged but not sealed QC's all over the frames in both broad boxes, gave up counting after 12. Based on the fact that we had loads of bees, BIAS in both boxes, strong laying marked queen, his opinion was they were readying to swarm and we needed to split into a nuc(s). To delay/prevent swarming, we ended up splitting the colony by an in situ AS, ( it's got some name that eludes me just now) adding another broad box to each, rearranging the broad + QC, stores, new foundation between the two boxes, crown board with rear entrance over the new bottom broad box.

Back Weds to check and then if that's worked,maybe we can get a nuc or two made up?


All clean bill of health from the SBI "It was good to meet you both yesterday, and to see some strong and healthy colonies in the walled garden."

Russ

 

[andyj301]

The books tell you a QC here or a QC there means this or that, but as we are dealing with females that don't read books many of which are written by males, QC frame postion is not that simple in my short BK experience.Just this Friday the SBI went though several colonies, in two of the colonies we found multiple cups and charged but not sealed QC's all over the frames in both broad boxes, gave up counting after 12. Based on the fact that we had loads of bees, BIAS in both boxes, strong laying marked queen, his opinion was they were readying to swarm and we needed to split into a nuc(s). To delay/prevent swarming, we ended up splitting the colony by an in situ AS, ( it's got some name that eludes me just now) adding another broad box to each, rearranging the broad + QC, stores, new foundation between the two boxes, crown board with rear entrance over the new bottom broad box.

Back Weds to check and then if that's worked,maybe we can get a nuc or two made up?


All clean bill of health from the SBI "It was good to meet you both yesterday, and to see some strong and healthy colonies in the walled garden."

Russ

Fair point, I'm still on my first year and my bees don't seem to be doing anything by the book, it was only from another post on the forum about supercedure that I even realised they were drone cells. Being able to pick peoples' brains at this stage of the year is much appreciated.

 

[enrico]

First year beekeepers are always impressed by the tidy frames with slabs of perfect cells all capped and looking pristine
Second year beekeepers get scared because all this pristine comb has changed to extra bits, bumps and humps
Third year beekeepers wonder why the whole lot has gone black!
Oh to be able to keep that fresh yellow first year perfect comb for ever....it just doesn't happen so don't worry, you are not alone!
E

 

[RogueDrone]

The Drone comb you've got can be used to check Varroa levels and if necessary can be cut from the frame and disposed of thereby removing that batch of mite. but as others have said we need the drones so this is a balancing act.

Colin