Eggs on bottom board...

[Buzzlodge]

I did a varroa drop count last week.
On examining the floor, I noticed several eggs under the brood area, which look like bee eggs to me.
What might this mean? Drone layers?
I attach two photos, one with a varroa for comparison.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Comparing the varroa to the egg makes me think that it is not a bee egg; that would be a very large bee egg...or a very small varroa mite. The reason I say this is because I can spot varroa easily but with my eyesight bee eggs are almost invisible and if bee eggs were as big as varroa I wouldn't have any trouble.

 

[Beefriendly]

Bee eggs are around 1.5 mm long...varroa mites are about 1.5 mm wide.
Looks like a bee egg to me...possibly thrown out due to the weather becoming colder.

 

[Millet]

Bee eggs are around 1.5 mm long...varroa mites are about 1.5 mm wide.
Looks like a bee egg to me...possibly thrown out due to the weather becoming colder.

Do eggs get bigger just before they hatch. ?.

 

[Karsal]

I did a varroa drop count last week.
On examining the floor, I noticed several eggs under the brood area, which look like bee eggs to me.
What might this mean? Drone layers?
I attach two photos, one with a varroa for comparison.

They do look like bee eggs to me
Are those crystals of sugar on the bottom board and are you still feeding them?

If so it may just be that they have filled all available cells with stores and are now making room for more stores thus throwing out the eggs to make more room.

 

[Millet]

The thing that has me thinking.. is .. do bees not eat the eggs that they do not want.. waste not want not so to speak...

 

[Buzzlodge]

They do look like bee eggs to me
Are those crystals of sugar on the bottom board and are you still feeding them?

If so it may just be that they have filled all available cells with stores and are now making room for more stores thus throwing out the eggs to make more room.

No. Its over a month since this hive got fed.
It did surprise me how much feed it took, compared to my other hive.. So i guess they were well stocked. There is a lot of ivy here too.

What you see as sugar crystals might be dropped new wax plates?

 

[Buzzlodge]

Just a litttle update. It was very mild here two days ago, and bees were orienteering at this hive.
So I guess that reduces the likelyhood that the eggs on the bottom board were the result of drone layers.

 

[Buzzlodge]

Final report on this for completeness in case somebody else has a similar issue.

The queen was obviously not performing. When I examined the hive in May (first opportunity) the brood nest was tiny and most of the cells were drones, although there were a few capped worker cells.

It seems the queen was badly mated or infertile and dud eggs were being discarded by the workers...., therby accounting for eggs in the floor debris.