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I just inspected my package hive--queen released 5 weeks today. This is the hive that I robbed a frame of brood from last Saturday to put with the swarm I captured.
The day before (Friday--5 days ago), I had done a partial inspection to locate the edges of the brood area & noted that I found a few drone cells beginning to develop on a boundary frame. Today, I did a full inspection & found that same frame had small patches of capped drone (for newbies, this looks just like little bullets). The near side had a group about 2" in diameter, while the off side had a larger patch about 3" in diameter plus another couple of stray cells nearby. I did see the queen about 4 frames away, and there were capped & uncapped brood cells between this frame and the one the queen was on. Did not see any other drone or Q cells--just regular brood.
I have not seen any other drones when inspecting this package, so I'm thinking these are the first. Is this about the normal amount for drone brood with a young Cordovan queen? And since the drone will inherit her genes alone, I'm presuming they'll look like her?
The day before (Friday--5 days ago), I had done a partial inspection to locate the edges of the brood area & noted that I found a few drone cells beginning to develop on a boundary frame. Today, I did a full inspection & found that same frame had small patches of capped drone (for newbies, this looks just like little bullets). The near side had a group about 2" in diameter, while the off side had a larger patch about 3" in diameter plus another couple of stray cells nearby. I did see the queen about 4 frames away, and there were capped & uncapped brood cells between this frame and the one the queen was on. Did not see any other drone or Q cells--just regular brood.
I have not seen any other drones when inspecting this package, so I'm thinking these are the first. Is this about the normal amount for drone brood with a young Cordovan queen? And since the drone will inherit her genes alone, I'm presuming they'll look like her?
