Drone Laying Queen

[Morgan968]

Hi everyone

So I got an overwintered Nuc from a supplier and have transferred into the main hives at the beginning of the month but it seems if I am not mistaken the queen might have turned into a drone layer, which is quite annoying if true considering purchasing this nuc less than a month ago, Anyway I suppose this is something which could happen and i Just need to rectify the situation if it has.

On the last inspection I noticed there were quite a few drone cells all over the place, so I thought i would wait until the next inspection and see if there is any difference. Carried this out today to see signs I may of been dreading, I have placed a couple of pictures of the frames of this hive, as you will be able to see there is a large portion of drone cells all within the brood pattern if not making up most of the brood pattern but there is some recently capped brood on some of the frames but then alot of capped brood on another.

I've also added a picture of a frame from one of the other nucs I purchased at the same time, which to me is more what you would expect from a frame.

My question is; from experience does this look like the start of a drone laying queen and something I need to do now, regarding changing her?

Or am I looking to much into this and should see if she sorts herself out and calms down on the drone laying, as I have herd a young queen can go over the top sometimes with drones

 

[Courty]

Hi,
I don’t think the brood pattern looks unhealthy, my hives are producing a lot of drones, the patterns are similar to yours, being patches of mainly drone brood in one area and plenty of worker brood elsewhere.
Where a drone has been laid amongst worker brood, they are later to hatch and so stand out more after workers have hatched.
You have plenty of worker brood and it looks to be the majority. My opinion is that it looks natural for this time of year.

Of course, I’m only in my second year so others more experienced may see something I haven’t.

Courty

 

[Ian123]

I don’t think it looks great but Courty is not to far off the mark all you can do at present is keep an eye. I would hope in future you would see a more consistent laying pattern and less patchy drone/worker mix. You are however dealing with livestock and especially with bees inconsistencies will arise and unlike many animals they are hard to detect visually.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

can't see much wrong with that pattern to be honest.
I certainly wouldn't be thinking I had a DLQ in the making

 

[Murox]

I get frames looking like that, never found it to be a real concern at all.

 

[Morgan968]

Thanks everyone for your input, it just slightly worried me as I've been told Its not right and need to be looking at the supplier of the nuc to possibly rectify this issue. I think I'll keep a close eye and see how things plan out over the next few weeks

Thanks

 

[Bee Boys]

Hi everyone

So I got an overwintered Nuc from a supplier and have transferred into the main hives at the beginning of the month but it seems if I am not mistaken the queen might have turned into a drone layer, which is quite annoying if true considering purchasing this nuc less than a month ago, Anyway I suppose this is something which could happen and i Just need to rectify the situation if it has.

On the last inspection I noticed there were quite a few drone cells all over the place, so I thought i would wait until the next inspection and see if there is any difference. Carried this out today to see signs I may of been dreading, I have placed a couple of pictures of the frames of this hive, as you will be able to see there is a large portion of drone cells all within the brood pattern if not making up most of the brood pattern but there is some recently capped brood on some of the frames but then alot of capped brood on another.

I've also added a picture of a frame from one of the other nucs I purchased at the same time, which to me is more what you would expect from a frame.

My question is; from experience does this look like the start of a drone laying queen and something I need to do now, regarding changing her?

Or am I looking to much into this and should see if she sorts herself out and calms down on the drone laying, as I have herd a young queen can go over the top sometimes with drones

I do not think it looks like a drone laying queen, because there is also capped worker brood.

 

[Bee Boys]

I don’t think it looks great but Courty is not to far off the mark all you can do at present is keep an eye. I would hope in future you would see a more consistent laying pattern and less patchy drone/worker mix. You are however dealing with livestock and especially with bees inconsistencies will arise and unlike many animals they are hard to detect visually.

I agree with you.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thanks everyone for your input, it just slightly worried me as I've been told Its not right and need to be looking at the supplier of the nuc to possibly rectify this issue.

I wouldn't have advised that - surefire way of making a fool of yourself.

 

[masterBK]

I think that with time the queen will lay an increasing proportion of drone amongst the worker brood and probably will need to be replaced within a month or so. Only time will tell if I'm right but have seen this scenario dozens of times over the years and have attached photo of one such example. The bees may even attempt to supersede her.

 

[Hachi]

I think that with time the queen will lay an increasing proportion of drone amongst the worker brood and probably will need to be replaced within a month or so. Only time will tell if I'm right but have seen this scenario dozens of times over the years and have attached photo of one such example. The bees may even attempt to supersede her.

Would you expand on your answer with more detail please? (For a learning opportunity only) PM if you prefer.

 

[Anthony.]

Hi everyone


I've also added a picture of a frame from one of the other nucs I purchased at the same time, which to me is more what you would expect from a frame.

Purely for my own education please can you confirm which pictures are which?

 

[beeno]

There are drone brood in worker cells as can be seen from the bullet pointed drone cells. The queen measures the cell size with her front legs and lays fertilised eggs in worker cells and unfertilised eggs in drone cells. The drone eggs laid in worker cells - she thinks she is laying a fertilised egg - become undersized as the cell is not large enough. The developed drones are fertile, but store less sperm and have less muscular mass and are therefore highly unlikely to be able to compete with full sized drones in DCAs. She may be superseded, but you cannot be sure it is not an unfertilised egg in the QCs. As she is running out of sperm the situation can only get worse.