2 brood nests - 1 hive

[CoolBees]

Just an interesting observation. Last week when I transitioned one of the 5 frame Nucs over to 8 frame equipment, I saw something I've not heard of. The hive had 2 distinct brood nests.

The main brood nest mostly filled the lower 5 deep as well as the lower part of the next box up, made up of solely worker brood.

Above that, about the size of a large grapefruit, was a 2nd brood nest made up completely of Drone brood. This covered parts of 3 frames in the lower half of the top box, and the upper half of the middle box.

What made it so unique, was that the frames were foundationless with freshly drawn white wax - and the drone brood cells were set into the frames surrounded by capped honey cells. It looked like a softball stuck in the middle of honey cells, and when pulling a frame, you were taking a slice out of it.

Has anyone seen this before? ... I haven't seen or read about a layout like this. I've always seen the drones on the outside of the main brood nest, but part of it.

In either case, I thought it was pretty cool, and thought I'd share.

[iddee]

The reason you have that is the insertion of foundationless frames. They will most always use that rather than convert older brood or honey cells to drone cells.

[van from Arkansas]

Hello to ID.  Not much to add, as ID nailed it.  However, remember the first sign of swarming is drone brood.  Not one hundred percent mind you, but keep swarming on the radar.

[Acebird]

Did you place the drone frames on the outside of the worker brood?

[CoolBees]

No worries. Thank you for the responses. It was really cool to see - and new for me, so I thought I'd share. The differences in foundationless vs foundation are quite striking sometimes. All new territory for me.