Second brood box

[Clemcook]

Hi,

I hope you can offer some advice, I am a new beekeeper, and recently I have added another brood box and the colony has obviously after inspection increased nicely however I have noticed the following

Drone cells on the bottom of some frames all clumped with lavea, hanging down
No brood in top box but lots of frames being drawn with honey being made but none capped
Some of the bottom brood box frames untouched?
I still can't noticeably see any eggs, there is loads of capped brood though but only on what seems to be the frames that had brood on when I got the hive about 4/5 weeks ago?

Any advice would be great, queen is there

 

[drex]

You say the queen is there, have you seen her then?
However there are no eggs, so she is not laying. Sounds like they are bringing in nectar as you say honey is being made, so that is not why she has gone off lay.
Drone cells hanging down on the bottom of frames sound very much like they could be queen cells. Any of these capped?
You have capped brood but only on frames that originally had brood on 4/5 weeks ago. It only takes 21 days for brood to emerge. Any uncapped brood? It is only 8 days uncapped. So if none she has not been laying for 8+ days.
Hive may have swarmed and the queen you saw could be a virgin.

 

[enrico]

A few things. Is there any larvae at all?
You have added the second brood box above the first when there was still room in the first one by the sound of it so all they are going to do is to fill the new brood box with stores. The old brood box will continue to be used. As bees emerge from cells the queen will lay eggs in them again. She is laying in the best part of the brood box for her, all in one place. As the colony expands the brood will start to move towards the outer frames.
I think you have been a bit keen adding a second brood box. I think the queen may still be in there, especially if you can confirm there is larvae. Just because you are not experienced in seeing eggs doesn't mean there are none there. Take a deep breath, let them get on with it and at you next inspection look for young larvae rather than worrying about queens and eggs. If there are none then you MAY be queenless, if that is the case come back to us and we will give further advice.
Best of luck and don't be too impatient.
E

 

[Clemcook]

Thank you both for helping!

I saw the Queen she is there, I added the second brood box as I had a feeder in there and there was only a couple of spare frames and I didn't want them to be too cramped? Should I now add a super or let them make their honey in the top brood box? Like you say she obviously likes to lay in the frames in the bottom, maybe I shouldn't be so keen for her to move up so quick!

I'm pretty sure it's drone brood clumped and hanging as it looks like the same shape as drone - just lots clumped - odd! And yes larve was there, there were no pointed queen cells I'm trying to remember if there were the small swarm cells that look like drone but don't think There was.

All in all a very busy hive and it's Good to know she will re lay in the frames she prefers

 

[enrico]

What I would do is take the top brood box and put it under the one she is using. If they need the space they can use it or not. It will do no harm there. I would then add a QE and a super above both box's.
There is nothing unusual about the drone brood. They often make clumps of it as you describe. It is fine, just be careful that they don't hide a queen cell near it that you might miss. To clear the bees from the area when you are inspecting blow gently on them and they will move away so you can check for queen cells
All sounds fine.......
E

 

[Millet]

What I would do is take the top brood box and put it under the one she is using. If they need the space they can use it or not. It will do no harm there. I would then add a QE and a super above both box's.
There is nothing unusual about the drone brood. They often make clumps of it as you describe. It is fine, just be careful that they don't hide a queen cell near it that you might miss. To clear the bees from the area when you are inspecting blow gently on them and they will move away so you can check for queen cells
All sounds fine.......
E

I did the exact thing you mentioned several weeks ago.

 

[Clemcook]

That's brilliant thanks for putting my mind at lease, just one more thing, they have made loads of progress in the second Brood box, if I put it underneath will all this be wasted or may they carry on down There as well as the new super?

Thanks again
Clementyne

 

[Swarm]

As well as a new super? You have frames untouched in the bottom brood box and they are gradually storing in the new brood box. It sounds to me that they only require that first brood box and perhaps a super. Don't ask them to do too much, if they need comb they will draw it but to then give them all this new wax to draw will just stress the colony.

 

[Clemcook]

Hi Steve,

Enrico suggested I should add a super and put the brood box that that have drawn from Lots of the frames under the box where she lays her brood, I was winding If the bottom box would then be forgotten about as The new super will be on top, I didn't want the hard work to go waste? Thanks

 

[enrico]

They will only use it if they need it, they were having to draw it out to store food. They may still do that if the queen needs more laying room but that sounds unlikely at present. They will move any stores up to the super eventually. Their work never goes to waste as you will always need drawn frames
E

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi Steve,

Enrico suggested I should add a super and put the brood box that that have drawn from Lots of the frames under the box where she lays her brood, I was winding If the bottom box would then be forgotten about as The new super will be on top, I didn't want the hard work to go waste? Thanks

Hi,

I hope you can offer some advice, I am a new beekeeper, and recently I have added another brood box and the colony has obviously after inspection increased nicely however I have noticed the following

Drone cells on the bottom of some frames all clumped with lavea, hanging down
No brood in top box but lots of frames being drawn with honey being made but none capped
Some of the bottom brood box frames untouched?
I still can't noticeably see any eggs, there is loads of capped brood though but only on what seems to be the frames that had brood on when I got the hive about 4/5 weeks ago?

Any advice would be great, queen is there

I'm reading your post as saying you have two brood boxes, the bottom one has some frames of undrawn foundation, some of the top box frames are drawn and contain stores but no brood. If there are enough empty frames in the bottom to accommodate the drawn ones from the top box swap the empty ones out and replace with drawn ones fitting stores to the outermost ends. The queen will need space to lay in the bottom box so if there are more full frames of honey in the top than you have room in the bottom box for you can either extract it or keep it for feeding use as required.
When you have rationalised the hive remove the now empty box, fit a queen excluder and a super.
With luck the bees will draw frames in the super and use them for stores, perhaps even moving some up from the brood box. As for the damaged drone comb I'd hazard a guess the beespace isn't correct so the bees drew comb where they could.
Hopefully your failure to see eggs is a matter of eyesight not a queen problem but if you can't see developing larvae in a few days ask again
Oh and if you find one or two queen cells in the middle of a frame leave them alone until you've come back for further advice.