A lot of drone brood

Paul, give them a foundationless frame to build drone comb on and watch for swarm cells. Sounds like your hive is thriving.

I'll second the foundationless frame. I try to have two in each hive, and the bees usually draw them out as all drone. Raise a crop in the spring, then fill the space with honey, maybe some in late summer for supercedures.

Cuts way down on the drones between boxes (and deeps have too much space between, it's half an inch most times). Less in the brood nest, too, which is nice.

Another thing I found the other year is that if you put 10 lbs of wet sugar on a hive on newspapers above the top box, have a well sealed feeder rim about 1.5" high, and a solid inner cover (no hole, no entrance) most of the time the bees will gobble up that sugar and raise a nice pile of drones in comb on the inner cover, especially if you put a protein patty (half pound) under the sugar. Bees are happy with the drones and don't make a mess further down.

If the rim leaks much or there is an entrance, they don't put drones up there.

My 2 TBHives had a huge Drone growth a few weeks ago, and now there is solid brood growth. I think they know what they need, and when they need it. Surrey, BC