Why drone cells?

[SunnyRaes]

We have a hive with a laying worker (or probably less likely, a DLQ). We have been adding in new egg / brood frames to try to get her to stop, before requeening or merging in the next week or so.

Given that the frames are being donated from a known good queen and she is laying normal brood in the donating hive, why is the Q- hive seemingly creating predominantly drone brood?

 

[VEG]

laying workers can only make drones a drone laying queen has run out of sperm so also can only lay drone eggs. If it is a DLQ then adding frames of eggs wont do any good as the bees see themselves as queen right.

 

[oliver90owner]

As veg says, no sperm involved, so haploid offspring.

If a DLQ, they are queen-right; laying workers can take several attempts withe frames of brood.

A DLQ is favourite, but you should be able to see, from the eggs laid, which it is.

 

[village girl]

As veg says, no sperm involved, so haploid offspring.

If a DLQ, they are queen-right; laying workers can take several attempts withe frames of brood.

A DLQ is favourite, but you should be able to see, from the eggs laid, which it is.

hi how can you tell from the eggs if they are not fertile ? do they look diferant

 

[SunnyRaes]

We will be putting in our third frame of brood tonight, so we're in it for the "long haul" and if a DLQ then we'll find her and dispatch her in due course.

Whatever it is that it laying in the hive is laying very occasionally and in a random pattern across many frames, however these odd eggs that are appearing are at the bottom of a cell. You basically find the odd egg here and there. No queen has been seen, so the assumption is a laying worker.

However my point is that the frames being donated are coming from a good fertile worker laying queen - the hive she is in is perfectly normal, so the queen has been fertilised

 

[VEG]

the eggs you are putting in from the donor hive should be normal worker unless of course they are drone eggs.

I dont think you can tell by looking at the eggs its only when they are capped you can tell they are drone.

 

[Skyhook]

hi how can you tell from the eggs if they are not fertile ? do they look diferant

No. The difference is that if they are laid by a drone-laying queen (DLQ) who has not been properly fertilised, you would expect one egg on the bottom of each cell. If laid by a laying worker, you would expect several to a cell, and for them to be attached to the sides, as her abdomen isn't long enough to reach the base of the cell or she doesn't have the correct instinct.

 

[village girl]

thank you i lern something new every day

 

[the beehive lodge]

life is new thing to be discovered

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