many drones

[bill]

I have noticed that one of my nucs has altogether too many drones for some reason. I probably gave them too many drone brood when I started it . I checked it yesterday an coundn't find the queen which was marked I hope she is just hiding but I will have to check with a queen excluder and a box. now that will not only find the queen but will seperate all the drones. I was thinking of getting rid of them. Is that a good idea or not?

[Jay]

If your nuc is queenless, and has laying workers, it will soon be all drones! Check to see if there are multiple eggs in each cell or eggs laid on the sides of the cell instead of just one single egg standing straight up in the bottom of the cell. Laying workers are not picky about how many eggs are deposited in each cell. They also tend to lay a very spotty brood pattern, not a nicely filled in oval like a queenright brood nest. Here are some laying worker eggs.



If your hive is queenright and you just have an over abundance of drone brood hatching, and you get rid of all the drones, the queen will lay more. She knows how many she wants around and will lay more if they dissapear. There is a certain balance reached in the hive and the drones are a part of that balance. They know they need a certain number of drone around for emergencies untill the fall, and they will keep drone around untill then. By getting rid of all of the drone in the hive, you create a need for the queen to lay more. Since varroa are attracted first to drone brood, who knows what this does for your varroa population. I use IPM in my hives, and part of that are two frames of drone comb removed and frozen after they are capped to attract and kill the varroa. You must be very carefull not to miss a cycle though, because if you do, you can drastically increase instead of decrease your varroa population. Good luck! :D

[Robo]

Jay's advice is right on.

Look at what brood is in the hive, is it a nice consistant pattern?   Or is it sort of hit and miss here and there?  Does the capped brood look normal (flush with the comb) or is raised like a bullet?  If it is scattered and bullet like (shot gun), you have a laying worker.

[Michael Bush]

Did you make up the nuc?  Did someone else?  Did they put a frame of mostly drone comb/brood into it?  I could be queenright but someone put a whole frame of drone brood in it instead of worker brood.

Otherwise, I'd be looking at them beeing queenless or having a virgin (drone laying) queen.