Foundationless frames,how much drone brood?

[Gene Weitzel]

I have found that when you have a "bad" queen, there are a lot of "popped" up drone cells in the worker brood and the amount of drone comb in the hive has no bearing on it. The workers are the ones who make the decision to draw drone comb, if they don't want the queen to lay in it, they fill it with honey. I keep all the drone comb moved to the outside edges of the broodnest, where it is mostly filled with honey. When they decide they need drones, they let the queen lay in some of it. So far, I have found that it is rare that there will be more than about 20 - 30% of the drone comb occupied by drone brood when they are positioned in this manner, it mostly gets used for honey storage. When I want to use a hive as a drone mother, then I move a frame of drone comb closer into the center (usually about the third frame over from the center comb), thats when I find nearly full frames of drone brood (which of course is my intent).

[Ross]

I find a lot of that drone comb becomes honey storage once they have satisfied themselves with enough drones.

[luvin honey]

I've noticed drone in small patches in the back with the honey storage. Makes sense that once the drones emerge they have a nice size for storing honey...