>I cut all the drone brood out. Should I have not done that
I wouldn't. Usually they will just build more.
> and they would have stored honey after the drones emerged?
Yes.
Sometimes I have questions that I'm afraid are going to sound so elementary and dumb. I have to preface this question by saying that I am not a beek yet. I am reading everything I can get my hands on, and following several different forums every day just absorbing the info that I find. So if this is dumb... I'm sorry to disrupt the flow of the thread....
Where did the drone brood in the super come from? Especially if there was an excluder (which mushmushi may not even use). I understand that worker bees can lay eggs that develop into drones. But I (apparently incorrectly) believed that if there was a flow and the supers were on, the workers would be solely concerned with storing as much nectar as possible for honey production. Almost a one-track mind on honey storage. My question isn't "how dare they lay eggs in 'MY' super?" as much as it is "why would they be producing drone brood in the super if there is a flow on?" It just surprised me that they would be concerned with laying drone brood in the super when they had a nectar flow.
Again, sorry if that is a dumb question.
11nick, you and I are about in the same position...I have no bees here (though I have a couple of hives at my mentor's place). Like you I read, read, read. One thing we're different in is that I know a lot of my questions can be elementary and possibly dumb but I don't hesitate to ask them! ;)
Workers 99.99999% of the time if they become queenless and start laying will lay drone eggs. There is a rare occurrence of females laying worker eggs...it is called "thelytoky"...at least I think that's how it's spelled. :)
Drone brood in the super came from the queen. :) Seriously, either there is no queen excluder or there is one but the queen got through a bad spot in the grid or the queen is a little smaller than normal. Plus....queen excluders are not infallible.
My scattered brained understanding is... If the colony is "queenright", meaning there is a queen and she is doing her job, then the workers are not laying those eggs. The queen's pheromone "controls" the colony somewhat by letting the workers know that all is well in the hive and nothing exceptional needs doing other than their day-to-day work. The pheromone spreads throughout the colony by the many workers that come in contact with the queen as they feed her or groom her or simply walk over where she has been. The scent naturally spreads by air, also, but the bees help move it from point to point from which it permeates the air.
Some beeks promote open brood chambers in which they use no queen excluder. This lets the colony attain it's own natural balance between brood and honey areas. It is looked at also as a swarm prevention measure by some beeks being as the queen isn't strictly confined to a given area and if she becomes honey/pollen/brood bound she has the option to "move up". I have pretty well decided to go this route myself. There can be problems with brood in the honey, but that is what knives are made for...the bees will repair the comb asap once the extracted comb is put back in the hive.
Best wishes,
Ed
PS...remember this info came from a rank newbee. ;)
