drone comb

[orin]

today I opened up the two hives that I have and noticed one of them had one frame that had alot of capped drone. What would cause this? I did notice a little bit of capped drone on some other frames as well. Could I have a bad queen or possibly something going on in the hive? I'm a new beekeeper so a lot of this is new to me any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

[little john]

Well, you wouldn't expect to see capped drone cells in a nuc, for example (those bees have other priorities - like increasing the numbers of workers), but as a colony matures and gets bigger, then the presence of drones is quite normal.  As many as 20% of cells can be drones - which is bad news if you keep bees for a honey crop - but it's perfectly normal.

What isn't normal is when you have only capped drone cells, with no capped worker cells - or when the caps on worker cells are domed (bullet headed) - 'cause then you've either got yourself a drone layer, or laying workers.

But - a good percentage of drones in a mature colony is what one would reasonably expect to see.

Hope this helps,
LJ

[orin]

Awesome info thanks..... could explain why that hive doesn't have quite as much honey as the other but no worries im not too focused on honey im more interested in multiplying and selling nucs later down the road

[Michael Bush]

>What would cause this?

Reproductive biology.  It is necessary for the continuance of the species.  At the peak of drone rearing 25% of the brood may be drone brood in a normal healthy colony with a good queen.