Drone Laying Queen

[GSF]

I done a hive split around the 2nd of March. One of the hives now has a drone laying queen. She's about as pretty a queen as you could ask for. Big, long, fat, and orange. The other two queens are doing fine - as of a week or so ago.

My question; She has just started laying, probably wasn't mated. Is there any time that a queen will lay just drone only? other than not being mated?

[Wolfer]

I believe some queens will lay drones at first. This is all new to them and it takes a few days to git it figured out.

I don't believe they will start laying at all without being mated. My problems with drone layers all happened at a later date when they ran out of semen.

The only queens I've had do this is early queens. Drones were flying but they didn't get mated well enough.
I won't raise a queen until the blackberries bloom no matter what the calendar or the thermometer says.

[GSF]

Thanks Wolfer, I split because the marked queen, not quite one year old, came up AWOL. There were numerous swarm cells in the hive, everything backfilled, wall to wall bees. I figured they were going to swarm soon anyway. They had actually started building swarm cells in February.

At least that gives me hope. When should I double check again?

[cdray]

My guess is what you said, she probably wasn't mated. Give her another week and see. When we come back from Bud's , you'll know for sure.

[Robo]

If the only thing you have is capped drone brood in worker cells, you have a drone layer and I would not wait to address it.   The longer you wait the further the hive will decline and the longer it will take to build up.  I have seen queens lay multiple eggs when they first start laying (or restart laying after winter) and that will clear in a few days and they will be fine.  I've never seen a queen recover from laying all drone.  

[Vance G]

One of my stronger overwintered colonies had a drone layer and I could not find her!  So I shook the bees out and placed a weak hive where the shaken one had sat.  The shaking did distribute needed bees to several colonies but in your climate, I would be tempted to insert a frame of wet brood down to eggs and get them raising a new queen--or if you have a spare queen, kill the purty failure and replace her.  I had no hope of a new queen or mating conditions when a raised one would have emerged so I just called the hive a loss and tried to distribute the bees.