[username00101]

Anyone have any suggestions on what might be taking place ?

I spotted the mated queen, she's been laying a solid pattern of 50% drone 50% worker.

Pattern looks "bumpy" and solid.

In this case, I believe this queen was recently mated as a supercedure.

 

[little_john]

In this case, I believe this queen was recently mated as a supercedure.

Sounds like a young inexperienced queen which hasn't got the hang of things just yet ...
Hopefully will settle down - but best to keep an eye on this, just in case.
LJ

 

[aran]

i saw this in a couple young queens this year. Ended up not improving so i killed and replaced them.

 

[username00101]

The drone brood was capped, been at least 2 weeks, and the uncapped brood sure looked like quite a bit of drone to me.

I found 2 larva in a single cell.

 

[johno]

I once had a newly mated queen in my observation hive who started with wall to wall drone brood in all the brood frames much to my disgust. So to get to the queen to remove her in an observation hive takes a bit of work so as I was busy I left her until I could find the time to do so. As the drones emerged she again lay wall to wall on the frames and this time all worker brood so if it was not for the fact that she was in an obsevation hive she would have been pinched long ago. I would say give her a little time and if she continues with drone brood then take action. Better a drone laying queen than a laying worker.

 

[username00101]

Re-visited this colony and didn't see an optimistic situation.

Below are the images of the brood nest.

 

[crofter]

Give it a couple more days and you will be able to see if they are extending the walls for extra length. I dont know how to tell the diff between worker and drone at that size larvae. Looks nice solid pattern though in the last pic.