Drone laying queen....new queens arriving next week....what to do with drone brood?

[RichardK]

I was suspicious that I had a drone laying queen on last inspection. Anyhow, upon going into the hive today to split it into 3 in preparation for new queens arriving on Wednesday week, she's definitely 'turned' - drone brood everywhere...nicely laid up on the whole too. Thankfully there are lots of worker bees.

Should I cut out as much drone brood as is reasonable in advance of the new queen next week? This probably amounts to around 2 frames worth from a 6 frame nuc.

Many thanks.

 

[enrico]

I just ditch mine. Too much hassle

 

[Boston Bees]

I was suspicious that I had a drone laying queen on last inspection. Anyhow, upon going into the hive today to split it into 3 in preparation for new queens arriving on Wednesday week, she's definitely 'turned' - drone brood everywhere...nicely laid up on the whole too. Thankfully there are lots of worker bees.

Should I cut out as much drone brood as is reasonable in advance of the new queen next week? This probably amounts to around 2 frames worth from a 6 frame nuc.

Many thanks.

Why would you cut it out? It's great to have lots of drones around. If you cut it out, the new queen will want to lay lots of drones to replace them, I suspect.

PS: Are you completely sure the old queen has gone DLQ? This is the season when a queen might try to lay a lot of drones.

 

[RichardK]

Why would you cut it out? It's great to have lots of drones around. If you cut it out, the new queen will want to lay lots of drones to replace them, I suspect.

PS: Are you completely sure the old queen has gone DLQ? This is the season when a queen might try to lay a lot of drones.

No, I'm not 100% sure and I'm still (just...) in my first year of beekeeping so this is all new to me. That said, there are a lot of drones - and probably 10 times as much drone brood as in a nearby black bee hive. I didn't see any obvious worker brood when splitting, although there were eggs. I figure the 2 queenless nucs will tell me something in a few days time.

 

[RichardK]

I just ditch mine. Too much hassle

I was thinking the same thing. The sheer numbers would I worry put undue strain on a new nuc which with the new queen arriving next week, could be 5+ weeks of any new brood & hence workers.

 

[RichardK]

I figure the 2 queenless nucs will tell me something in a few days time.

Thinking about it, if any available larvae are drones, will the bees still try to raise a queen cell anyhow? i.e. queen cells in the short terms won't tell me anything?

 

[Podilia]

At this time of year a drone laying queen is not rare. Almost every spring I have one. If you can get a new queen the colony is saved. Bees usually remove those drone brood because they save honey for workers. May be in your climate it's a time for drone brood rearind. In my observation those drones from modified worker cells are too small compare to ordinary drones.

 

[Boston Bees]

Thinking about it, if any available larvae are drones, will the bees still try to raise a queen cell anyhow? i.e. queen cells in the short terms won't tell me anything?

I was thinking that!

They might still try to make a queen cell, out of a drone larvae, if she is truly 100% DLQ and you take her away. Of course, it will not produce a queen.

 

[RichardK]

I was thinking that!

They might still try to make a queen cell, out of a drone larvae, if she is truly 100% DLQ and you take her away. Of course, it will not produce a queen.

Oh well ... we'll see. Two nucs are for receiving queen cells next week, the third keeps the existing queen. Coincidentally I looked in my other Buckfast hive which looked much the same, and a black bee hive has substantially increased drone brood to 10 days ago (still way behind the Buckfast and with 5 frames of worker brood too).

Puzzles, puzzles! So much to learn!

 

[Wilco]

Did you see the queen or could it be laying workers?

 

[nantmoel]

Dispatch the queen, ditch the drone brood and boost colony with brood from other colonies, look for queen cells in two days and cut them out. Make sure when you do your splits that there are plenty of bees, look for further QC's and cut those out before you introduce your new queens. Make sure you have plenty of bees on 3 frames at various stages otherwise you'll be wasting your money.

 

[RichardK]

Did you see the queen or could it be laying workers?

In one, yes i saw the queen. Not in the second which I feel must have superseded in the last 6 months as they're generally much darker now than before. I'll have a good rumage around later in the week.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Is there still worker brood? If not, and you have some to spare, give a frame of emerging brood when giving a new queen.

 

[RichardK]

Is there still worker brood? If not, and you have some to spare, give a frame of emerging brood when giving a new queen.

Gut feel no, although it's possible I missed it I did notice eggs but didn't note the cell size so will see what it develops into. Thanks for the tip on adding a worker brood frame with the new queen which I can do.