YorkshireBees
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2010
- Messages
- 1,590
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- South Yorkshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 10-20 (mix of poly / wood)
On inspection of 2 of my hives yesterday I was surprised to find that the bottom super (just above Queen Excluder) had a few (2-3) frames, centrally located, with a very small patch of brood on them.
I am literally talking the bottom 2-4 lines of cells on both sides of the frames.
The brood consisted of eggs / lavae, I didn't see any sealed brood.
I assumed at first that somehow the queen had managed to get into the super.
The 1st hive I found this in, I checked every super frame and on top of the queen excluder but couldn't find the existing queen (2011 marked) or spot any new queen.
I was inspecting both of these hives to perform a demaree AS anyway as they were getting short of space for egg laying.
When I inspected the brood box, in both cases, I found the marked queens happily laying eggs.
In both cases the QE is a T's punched metal QE that was actually brand new (replacement of the naff plastic undersized slot ones!).
Any theories on how this could happen?
Can workers move eggs and if so would they move them above a QE??
I have noted it all down and will check again next inspection to see if there are any new eggs.
I am literally talking the bottom 2-4 lines of cells on both sides of the frames.
The brood consisted of eggs / lavae, I didn't see any sealed brood.
I assumed at first that somehow the queen had managed to get into the super.
The 1st hive I found this in, I checked every super frame and on top of the queen excluder but couldn't find the existing queen (2011 marked) or spot any new queen.
I was inspecting both of these hives to perform a demaree AS anyway as they were getting short of space for egg laying.
When I inspected the brood box, in both cases, I found the marked queens happily laying eggs.
In both cases the QE is a T's punched metal QE that was actually brand new (replacement of the naff plastic undersized slot ones!).
Any theories on how this could happen?
Can workers move eggs and if so would they move them above a QE??
I have noted it all down and will check again next inspection to see if there are any new eggs.