Drone Cell Production

[Kurt]

Hi folks, I would like to ask maybe a dumb question. Two weeks I checked on one of my bees hives and all  is well. Tonight I checked only the super and when pulling frames I noticed that when I put it back together last time I did not put all the frames tightly back together. Now the center two frames (farther apart) have a comb built all the way across and there seems to be alot of drone larvae laying all over the place. I pulled those two frames out together and tried a little to cut them apart and it seems there a pile of drone cells in there.

My question is, if there is too much room between the frames do the bees start building larger cells thus the queen starts laying drones? This nuc is only been in the hive a month but has a ton of bees already. Is this a swarm signal?

Not worried, just curious.

Thanks,
Kurt

[buzzbee]

When foundation is all worker sized,the bees will build drone comb wherever they can.It is only natural to build drone comb.

[sc-bee]

Clean it up --- straighten up the burr comb. They like to build drones in the extra space.

She'll lay some more drones if they need them.

[Kurt]

Thanks. Here is a pic of a ugly looking frame.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5269/imgp0211k.jpg

Thanks,
Kurt