drone brood foundation

[margot]

I put a frame of the plastic drone brood foundation in a hive, in an effort to trap varroa mites. I've removed the frame, but I'm not certain that the brood consisted of drones. It appears that the bees may have made the cells a little smaller. What experience have others had with this? How can I tell whether it's drone brood or worker brood?

[Michael Bush]

Drone brood has domed cappings that look like round tipped bullets. Worker brood is only slightly convex on top. The look of drone brood is VERY distinctive, there is no mistaking it once you've seen it.

If the surface is mostly flat, then it is worker brood. If it's very domed, then it's drone brood.

[Branman]

I read somewhere that very new queens are loathe to lay drone eggs in the beginning. If your queen is very young, she might have laid worker eggs in the drone comb. Again, I forgot where I read this, I believe is was in laidlaw's contemporary guide to queen rearing, or whatever that book is called.

[bjerm2]

Your correct with that statement. Young queens want to build up their worker force first. After about a month she will start laying there. As far as buying drone foundation, I take old comb and remove the center from it and the bees replace it with drone comb.
Dan

[newbee 101]

I have seen in my hive one side of a frame all drone and one side all workers.(pretty organized) I have also seen them mixed up a bit in clumps.

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"To bee or not to bee, that is the question"