Meet "Millie," a September 2020 swarm [no way of knowing age]. She was given a boost of 5 frames of drawn comb, and passed a pleasant winter in good form. (Now just because this sounds like a story problem from school, don't give up.)
Millie was booming by mid-Feb and into a second hive body. She was split 50-50 March 1, with no regard for location of queen. Half the frames & bees were moved to Beeyard B. On later inspection, the Beeyard B half did not contain the queen, and didn't produce a queen cell. These were furnished a Q cell from another hive.
Millie's Queen continued in Beeyard A. This group was given 4 additional frames of drawn comb. It's warm enough and the flow is strong enough that there has been white wax for several weeks. There are yet 4 empty (foundationless) frames.
This hive has become almost exclusively drones. Rough estimate, 80% of capped brood is drones in a good laying pattern, but laid in the old worker comb (puffy cell caps), not in newly drawn drone cells. 30% of brood is open, and can't be distinguished whether it's worker or drone. Today, two swarm cells (base of frame) were being capped. There is normal activity at the hive entrance, and the workers are active early and late, drizzly weather or dry.
The diagnosis needed is: Is Millie's Queen laying in nectar and then producing drones?
If she's become a drone layer and the bees are offing her, wouldn't there be a supercedure cell in the middle, instead? Remember, all comb is foundationless and the bees chew where they will.
Thanks, all.
Just my thoughts, you have queen of unknown age in there being a swarm queen. She very well now be a drone layer with very few fertilized eggs. Therefore the bees have to choose eggs where she laid a few viable eggs and perhaps that was the bottom of the frame. Just one possibility.
Hmm... I follow that idea.
There still are small patches of worker brood, meaning the drone & worker brood is not speckled/intermixed together.
Need to decide whether to take out the Queen and let them requeen. I really don't need another split. Or else I need more equipment.
FloridaGardener, you definitely have an issue. Let me summarize your text to see if I interpreted correctly?
Millie hive is 80% drone brood as identified by the convex cap, (bulging) with an additional 30% brood larva that is not identified as either worker or drone brood upon last inspection. Additionally there are two swarm cells located at bottom of the frame. Is this summary correct?
Ok, let me think here:
1. 80% drone oh yes, that is a laying worker, but wait: how many frames of drone brood, this is significant further, drone hives dont make queen cells.
2. Queen cells? This is confusing as I have seen desperate hives helplessly queenless that built cells where no eggs not larva present. I have not seen queen cells made of unfertilized eggs, drone larva. So this begs the question: are there fertilized eggs present? We don?t know as there is unidentifiable larva present at this point that could be either, that is drone or worker larva?
3. Queens are normally replaced, that is superseded, as egg laying is depleted. The same goes for queens that lay to much drone brood.
In conclusion, IF there are fertilized eggs, then your viable queen cells may solve your issue and all will be well. I would look for completion, capping, of the queen cells.
Best to note. I have seen every exception to the rule of honeybees with regards to queen rearing. The hive will tell all once you learn to see all the variables in which many are over looked.
Is this hive roaring? a constant buzz louder than norm? Do you have a queen excluder in place, a common practice early season for honey production? After you made your split in an hour, one hive, the queenless hive will roar. I usually know shortly after splits which hive is queenless just by sound and excited bees on the entrance that lack direction, bees going back and forth as opposed to a forager that just exists the hive.
In a few days, we will know if the unidentifiable larva is fertile as the capping tells all. If drone, then provide fertile eggs or better a queen if available. If the bees refuse to make a queen cell out of eggs, post again as there are several options.
Best to your bees.
Mr Van you answer came with great insight. Outstanding answer.
Hi Van,
About 80% of the CAPPED brood is drone. There still is capped worker brood. Queen cells: One was capped, one being capped during inspection. The cap on #1 was fresh, not chewed down and thinned to allow new queen out. So, not likely to immediately emerge.
The split was 28 days ago, and there's 5-day larvae. She's in there, and laying. No queenless roar, they just want me out of the way to WORK. No excluder. I can't put them on around here unless there are 3 medium brood boxes AND and top entrance, otherwise they swarm for sure.
I could always chase down the Queen and turn her into swarm lure. But she really was cranking for awhile this spring. I dislike taking queens except in OBVIOUS failure:
rapidly diminishing brood nest size, and
dwindling comb coverage of colony, and
spotty laying pattern, and
she's a-movin' real slooow.
Your capped queen cells are a sigh of relief as well as known fertile eggs. She will most likely disappear, superseded and the hive will thrive assuming the new queen gets mated. I do not see any action needed on your part other than checking on a future mated queen.