Drone Cells

[Cars]

I have just had my first proper look in the hive for this year. It all looks good, eggs, lavea, queen all seen, couple of frames of stores and lots of bees. I did however find about a dozen capped drone cells all together on one frame, is this normal ?

I am very new to beekeeping, with this being my first colony that was
established last July. Why would they be producing drones at the moment ?

I also removed the remaining piece of fondant and added a feeder and some 1:1 syrup as they have been collecting a lot of water over the last few days.

As ever would be appreciative of guidance / comments.

 

[Poly Hive]

Quite normal, the queen getting into "practice" as it were has forgotten to fertilise the eggs.

However keep an eye on it as if more appears then you may, and I stress the may, have a failing queen.

PH

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes as with PH put just to add they may also be intentional if it’s a big colony and depending on race of bee.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes quite normal,especially in the warmer area's where there is good forage.

 

[oliver90owner]

First, depends really where they are situated.

Middle of comb - a little worrying - could be as PH says or could be the start of a drone layer. You will be able to observe and decide on what you see. At the (lower) outer edges of the brood nest probably means the colony is strong enough for potential swarming, from about ten days after they, the drones hatch (timing is very rough).

If natural drone brood I would expect to see some more as the nest develops.

Regards, RAB

 

[Midland Beek]

Queens do not 'think' when they lay eggs. They just lay them in whatever cells they come across: worker cells, drone cells or queen cell cups. So, if there happen to be some drone cells in the current brood-rearing area, the queen will invariably lay in them. If the colony does not want drones and views the raising of them as a waste, they will not bother rearing them. But if the colony is strong and the queen happens to lay in some drone cells, they will raise them.

 

[Skyhook]

I was a bit concerned to see a patch of drone brood on the outer frame today, but I think it was a patch of drone cells- some of the combs are pretty droney and due for replacement.