Interesting question came up at the bee meeting the other night. Someone had a hive that went queen less at some point over the winter. They said it was about half workers and half drones. The question was, does over wintering a drone have any negative effect on their reproduction capabilities?
Sounds like a hive full of laying workers. The bees are trying to bee able keep their genetics alive. The drones have the qenetics of the queen.
Jim
Well, I've also seen lots of drones end up in the one queenless hive in a yard....it seems as they get kicked out of the queen right colonies they end up in 5hr queenless ones.
Sounds like the drones are hatching out through the winter. Either a drone laying queen or laying workers. Drones don't normally winter in a queen right colony. d2