excesive drone brood

[BKF Admin]

I hived a primary swarm about 3 weeks ago.

Nice quite bee's that have drawn comb well and the queen started laying within 24 hours.

on inspection yesterday they have drone brood capped/uncapped under every frame,they seem to of gone drone mad ?

There are no queen cells and I have brood on 9 frames.

The hive contains the amount of drones that I would expect to see this time of year.

Any ideas what they are upto ?

I am going to have a quick check tomorrow to see if I have the floor upside down,this would give them a larger bee space at the bottom of the frames.

 

[jon]

I put one or two super frames in every brood so that they can make drone comb below if they want to. It discourages them from making drone comb all over the place.

 

[BKF Admin]

They do have one super frame that they have used as well.

 

[jon]

Leave them to it then. 9 frames with brood is good going in 3 weeks.

 

[hedgerow pete]

you might find if she is a new queen she has not perfected the art of laying a fertilized egg yet and is a little hit or miss

 

[BKF Admin]

She is upto 9 frames of brood.

If you look inside the entrance you can see the bees bearding under the frames from 5ft away.

I will take some pics tomorrow when I go up to cut the grass.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Is it Thornes foundation.

 

[BKF Admin]

Yes Thornes premium.

But the drone comb is being built under the bottom bars.

 

[grizzly]

can you place the super frame on the outside edge of the brood, or does it need to be right in the middle there ?

 

[jon]

can you place the super frame on the outside edge of the brood, or does it need to be right in the middle there ?

You can place it anywhere although they will probably draw the comb quicker if it is in the middle of the brood nest where it is warmer.

 

[Poly Hive]

I think your depth below the frames is wrong technically.

One of the poly hives has a "well" in the floor and the bees always draw out drone brood there on the bottom bars which is very useful as it saves having a half frame in.

PH