Drone laying queen

[The bees knees honey]

I carried out a split that produce a good size queen looks like she has been laying for a week or so. There are a quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells and lots of eggs Should I get rid of her or give her another week or so

 

[Boston Bees]

I carried out a split that produce a good size queen looks like she has been laying for a week or so. There are a quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells and lots of eggs Should I get rid of her or give her another week or so

Definitely another week or three, give the poor love a chance

 

[Finman]

Get a new queen. It will not become better.

 

[pargyle]

I carried out a split that produce a good size queen looks like she has been laying for a week or so. There are a quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells and lots of eggs Should I get rid of her or give her another week or so

Definitely give her another week/10 days - you will know by then whether the lots of eggs turn into worker brood or drones ... plenty of time to swap a queen if you need to. Sometime new queens do take awhile to get going ...

 

[The bees knees honey]

Thank you will give her a bit more time

 

[The bees knees honey]

The colony are making emergency queen cells I'm guessing they know best and I should look at replacing the queen do you think I'm right.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The colony are making emergency queen cells I'm guessing they know best and I should look at replacing the queen do you think I'm right.

If there are emergency queen cells then something has happened to the queen and she is no longer there

 

[Finman]

Definitely give her another week/10 days - you will know by then whether the lots of eggs turn into worker brood or drones ... plenty of time to swap a queen if you need to. Sometime new queens do take awhile to get going ...

 

[Finman]

"Sometimes " seems to be a leading argument in beekeeping. Term " probability" has not much value. And time has no value when you hope that a wish will come true.

Buy a new laying queen and squeeze that drone layer. Take a fortune to your own hands. I have not met a queen which has turned from bad to good.

 

[pargyle]

"Sometimes " seems to be a leading argument in beekeeping. Term " probability" has not much value. And time has no value when you hope that a wish will come true.

Buy a new laying queen and squeeze that drone layer. Take a fortune to your own hands. I have not met a queen which has turned from bad to good.

I'd agree with that but at present the OP does not really know whether it is a drone layer or just a slow start for a new queen ... they do sometimes take a bit of time to get into their stride. Another week is not going to make any difference by which time they will know whether it's all drone brood or not ... and if it is ... time to get a new queen !

 

[Finman]

If somebody says that queen is drone layer, I do not start to insist, that it is not. A beekeeper must know some basics, otherwise the hobby is too difficult.

 

[pargyle]

If somebody says that queen is drone layer, I do not start to insist, that it is not. A beekeeper must know some basics, otherwise the hobby is too difficult.

But that's not what was said:

" There are a quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells and lots of eggs "

Until they know what the lots of eggs turn into - they won't know - Can you tell a drone larvae from a worker larvae in the early stages ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Can you tell a drone larvae from a worker larvae in the early stages ?

he probably knows it's father's full name and it's favourite colour

 

[Finman]

But that's not what was said:

These beekeepers in this forum may say what ever, and experienced beekeepers may answer what ever.

 

[Finman]

But that's not what was said:

" There are a quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells and lots of eggs "

Until they know what the lots of eggs turn into - they won't know - Can you tell a drone larvae from a worker larvae in the early stages ?

Pargyle, you must be blind. Or Drone Layer keeping must be a new branch of science.
.

 

[rolande]

This is a rare occurrence but I'm in agreement with Finman on this.

Everything the OP has so far written points to a rubbish queen.

 

[pargyle]

This is a rare occurrence but I'm in agreement with Finman on this.

Everything the OP has so far written points to a rubbish queen.

All looks pretty irrelevant now as they are building queen cells so likelihood is that there is no queen there to lay ... I'd be interested to know what percentage of the 'lots of eggs' turned out to be drone or worker brood though....

 

[Finman]

All looks pretty irrelevant now as they are building queen cells so likelihood is that there is no queen there to lay ... I'd be interested to know what percentage of the 'lots of eggs' turned out to be drone or worker brood though....

Bees Knees could sell the queen to pargyle and pargyle could count how many drones the queen will produce.

 

[rolande]

All looks pretty irrelevant now as they are building queen cells so likelihood is that there is no queen there to lay ... I'd be interested to know what percentage of the 'lots of eggs' turned out to be drone or worker brood though....

Even if a higher proportion of the eggs turn out to be workers I still wouldn't tolerate a queen that started her career with "quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells". Like banking trouble for later in the year/early next spring.

 

[Finman]

Even if a higher proportion of the eggs turn out to be workers I still wouldn't tolerate a queen that started her career with "quite number of capped drone brood cells with a few capped worker cells". Like banking trouble for later in the year/early next spring.

A couple of years ago I had 3 queens, which had only one mating day between rainy days.
All tree started their laying with drones.

One queen I put into cage, when I saw, what weather is coming. I kept it in the prison, that it cannot make that one mating day. It mated normally some days later and layed normally.