I've seen brood above the excluder on more than one occasion (most
recently yesterday) but this was worker brood and caused by workers
moving eggs. It always occurs when the bee space is slightly wrong (in
Saturday's case the super had far too much bottom clearance, causing the
bees to build comb up through the excluder as if it wasn't there) The
excluder was in good condition, the Queen was in the brood chamber
beneath the excluder but for about 5 cells above the excluder there was
a small patch of worker brood. I've never actually witnessed a worker
transferring an egg but there's no other explanation that I can think of
and they certainly have the manipulative ability. I've never seen drone
brood above the excluder, but laying workers would obviously be one
explanation of that.

Alan Riach
Bathgate, Edinburgh