Lots of Drone Brood from new marked queen

annette · May 17, 2007, 05:18:08 PM

Need Help please

I introduced a caged queen to my queenless hive 3 weeks ago, then went overseas. Went up to visit them today and the new marked queen is walking around, I saw her. The problem is there is so much drone brood in the bottom deep, and at first I thought I had a laying worker until I finally saw the queen I introduced 3 weeks ago in the next super up. She is making worker brood up there, but very small amount of brood. Perhaps I am not giving her a chance since it has only been 3 weeks.I heard from a friend who went up to visit my bees (he is not a beekeeper) that there was lots of robbing going on while I was away, and I did notice that their reserve of honey was gone and some dead bees on the ground.

I have several questions

1. Why would there be so much drone brood??
2. Do you think the robbing slowed down the production of the queen.
3. Would it be wise to switch out some frames of brood from my other hive which has an extraordinary queen and can certainly give up some brood???

Thank you for the help
Annette from Placerville

Mici · May 17, 2007, 05:53:03 PM

i think that if you have worker brood you shouldn't be worried about. but it's only what i THINK.
look for younger worker brood, you might have some capped worker brood but a superceded queen who failed to mate. just one of the possible scenarios, but i think that...it's just ok, a colony needs a certain ammount of drones, i think that 20%, now remember, to have 20% ...what? from 3 worker cells you get 2 drone? i'm amming at the ammount of space needed to raise 20% drones.

Kirk-o · May 17, 2007, 06:09:44 PM

I would look for a pattern.Is the drone brood every were?Or is it on the bottom of the frame tell us a little more
kirko

annette · May 17, 2007, 08:30:32 PM

It is mostly on the bottom of the frames in the bottom deep super. But also in the middle of the frames, here and there.
The queen is making worker brood on top in the next super up, but not a lot.

jimmyo · May 17, 2007, 08:54:03 PM

Could this be an sign that they are about to swarm?
Jim

annette · May 17, 2007, 09:04:55 PM

No, they are not going to swarm, as this hive already swarmed in march and has gone downhill ever since, until I finally realized they were queenless about 3 weeks ago. that is when I introduced this new queen who is making lots and lots of drone brood and very little worker brood.

Please keep the answers coming.
Thank you
Annette

prisoner#1 · May 17, 2007, 09:59:04 PM

it's possible that the queen ihasnt been inseminated, the drones will change that

Michael Bush · May 17, 2007, 11:09:45 PM

>1.do you think that the robbing slowed down the production of this queen??

Usually serious robbing for a long time results in the dead queen. I'm sure robbing would slow her down, yes.

>2.why would there be so much drone brood in the bottom deep??

Is there any worker brood? If there is a nice amount of worker brood, I'd say it's just the time of year. If not, I'd say you have a drone laying queen.

>3.should I give this hive some brood frames from my other hive which has an extraordinary queen and can certainly give up some brood??

If there is no worker brood in the hive, yes, I would. Then they can supersede the drone layer. Try a frame of emerging brood (to boost the population quickly) and some eggs and open brood so they can replace the queen if they like.

annette · May 18, 2007, 02:04:13 PM

There was worker brood in the super above the bottom deep, but I would not say it was enough to speak of. OK, then I will try to switch out the frames of brood, as you suggest.

Thank you so much
Annette

Brian D. Bray · May 18, 2007, 06:09:08 PM

In assessing the brood area try to determine the percentage of worker brood to drone brood. There should be about a 4 or 5:1 difference in favor of the worker brood. If not, your queen is questionable and should probable be replaced for the benifit of the hive.
When one supercedure has taken place the hive almost always seems less willing to supercede again. Not that they won't but if the replacement queen isn't performing then she needs to be replaced.

annette · May 18, 2007, 07:08:13 PM

Then I seem to have a problem because there is definitely way more drone brood. I paid a high price for this queen. Do you think the Sacramento Beekeeping store should replace this queen?? I mean, she is producing worker brood also so would they have a responsibility to replace her??

DavePaulson · May 18, 2007, 07:13:30 PM

Could it be that some of the worker brood hatcthed it takes 3 days longer for drone brood to hatch?

Dave

Brian D. Bray · May 18, 2007, 07:21:28 PM

If the queen is fertile she should be laying eggs at a rate that would produce a constant hatch of brood. If that is the case and the drone to worker brood is out of wack then there is a problem with the queen. If the queen is laying intermittenly so that worker brood hatches out before she lays again there is a problem with the queen.

Either way I see it as a queen problem. She might want to contact the supplier she got the queen from and see what he has to say.

annette · May 19, 2007, 01:39:03 PM

Quote from: Michael Bush on May 17, 2007, 11:09:45 PM
>1.do you think that the robbing slowed down the production of this queen??

Usually serious robbing for a long time results in the dead queen. I'm sure robbing would slow her down, yes.

>2.why would there be so much drone brood in the bottom deep??

Is there any worker brood? If there is a nice amount of worker brood, I'd say it's just the time of year. If not, I'd say you have a drone laying queen.

>3.should I give this hive some brood frames from my other hive which has an extraordinary queen and can certainly give up some brood??

If there is no worker brood in the hive, yes, I would. Then they can supersede the drone layer. Try a frame of emerging brood (to boost the population quickly) and some eggs and open brood so they can replace the queen if they like.

Michael

There is some worker brood in this hive, but not much. Should I still give them some frames of brood from the strong hive?? The reason I am reluctant to give them brood from the other hive is, I have a very strong queen who is unmarked, and I am afraid in brushing off the bees (to take the frame away), I may brush off the queen and who knows what could happen.

I don't mean to be so neurotic, but now I have only one good hive and do not want to jeopardize this hive also by messing with it.
I am going back up today to take a better look at this drone layer and see more carefully what is going on.

All help is appreciated.
Annette