On Tue, 28 May 1996, Vladimir Ptacek wrote:
 
> season out of hives. When checking colonies after a week or so he found
> four queen cells on one of those combs. There was a gueen excluder on the
> brood nest and no other brood cells in about three honey supers bellow the
> top super. We guessed then, bees had to move eggs from the brood nest to
> raise queens in this part of hive far from the source of the queen
> substance ...
 
Hm, I've had brood above the QX in one colony this year and
last. I only proved drones as they were trapped, and it was
mostly drone foundation so I wondered if I had a laying worker
in addition to the queen. Now I wonder if they might have been
moving eggs. There was some apparently used worker foundation,
but no real evidence when I looked. I shall try to investigate
further. Of course, it's also possible the queen could actually
get through the QX somewhere -- they're not perfect.
 
This also makes me wonder if a 'Jumbo' hive is still too small
for my bees, even in the UK.
 
Regards,
--
Gordon Scott   [log in to unmask]      [log in to unmask] (work)
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Beekeeper; Kendo 3rd Dan; Sometime sailor.  Hampshire, England.