BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > DISEASE & PEST CONTROL
Possible Drone Laying?
Badwwolfe:
New urban bee keeper in LA County here. We have 2 hives with mediums on them already, started late April. The problem is with only 1 hive though. In this 10 frame deep we have a feeder and 8 frames. The 6th frame from the feeder (3rd or so from the other side) is the last frame they?ve filled out, and I?ve included pics of it.
The problem is that the frame has what appears to us to be drone brood in the middle surrounded by uncapped honey. The dozen or so capped cells in the middle seem to be convex compared to the capped honey around the top edge. Looking deeper into the hive they?ve built we see plenty of capped brood and developing larvae. We just can?t figure out what these capped cells in the rogue frame are or if we should be worried at all. Anybody more experienced have any ideas?
The15thMember:
It's hard to see from your pictures, but as long as you have mostly worker brood in the hive, I really wouldn't be concerned. A queen becomes a drone layer because she runs out of stored sperm and therefore can only lay drones, so as long as she is still laying worker brood, she isn't a drone layer. What type of frame is this? Is it fully drawn plastic, foundation, or foundationless?
Badwwolfe:
The post wouldn?t let me post the attached pictures at full resolution, limit of 200kb each. They?re plastic foundation bought from our local bee keeper place (we took classes there and bought all our equipment there as well). The capping are convex, not like most worker brood or other capped stores. I agree that it?s not something to worry too much about, just figured I?d rather ask some people and get more opinions than my own.
The15thMember:
--- Quote from: Badwwolfe on May 26, 2020, 07:43:19 pm ---The post wouldn?t let me post the attached pictures at full resolution, limit of 200kb each. They?re plastic foundation bought from our local bee keeper place (we took classes there and bought all our equipment there as well). The capping are convex, not like most worker brood or other capped stores. I agree that it?s not something to worry too much about, just figured I?d rather ask some people and get more opinions than my own.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, that image limit can be a pain at times. If the cappings are definitely more convex than worker brood, then you are right, they are drones. I have never used any fully drawn plastic frames, so I can't speak from experience, but it wouldn't surprise me if the bees just decided to put some drones in the worker-sized cells since they didn't have any other options. Perhaps someone more familiar with this type of frame can give you a better answer.
cao:
Welcome :happy:
That patch does look like drone brood. It is not a problem as long as the majority of the brood is worker bees.
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