[kookaburra]

I am pretty confused now...

My queen is laying (i think, I haven't found her yet, probably wouldn't recognize her if she hit me in the face with her scepter!!)

The only brood I see is drone brood. really scattered. Lots of eggs and larvae, but only capped drones.

But there are swarm cells. There are two capped. No question they are queen cells (large, point down, look like packing peanuts). I have a lot of funny looking drone cells, but these are definately queens.

Is my queen just that horrible that she can only manage a handfull of female eggs? Sure looks weird to me. I am confused!

I'm gonna hang in there and see what these rascals do, though.

Is all that comb built into drones ruined for regular brood?

-rick

 

[Michael Bush]

At least they are managing to make a queen. The other one may be poorly mated and can't fertilize many eggs. Weather is the most likely cause of that, but not enough drones around when she was mated could also be a cause.

 

[kookaburra]

Thanks!
They sure are confusing me right now. I did worry about having a poorly mated queen with the cooler weather and very few drones. The next queen should have better luck with lots more drones flying now and nicer weather.

Will all those drones ruin my brood comb or will the bees reshape it be worker comb?

 

[Michael Bush]

I don't worry unless you have whole combs that are laregly drone. A few won't matter one way or the other. They will build them somewhere no matter what you do.