Greetings all,
     Here is one for the list.  Today, in St. Louis, Missouri, it got up to
68 sunny  degrees.  Perfect day to inspect hives.  One of the hives has me
puzzled.  I even checked with a couple fellow beekeepers who have been at
this for many years, and they are puzzled too.  This hive was requeened in
June, and the marked queen was last seen in October.  I opened the hive a
month ago to find it "busting at the seams", but NO marked queen.  I
searched and located a unmarked queen.  I was surprised to find that they
had requeened sometime between October and February.  Today, I opened the
hive to find one frame with a softball sized area of drone brood, on both
sides of the frame, and two queen cells hanging from the bottom bar!  One
was about 3/4 completed, the other was 1/2 completed.  Both had royal jelly
and larvae in them.  There was NO eggs in the hive, nor any worker brood.
The only brood there was, was the drone brood on the one frame.  I did find
the queen again, to be sure she was there.  I checked 3 times for other
eggs, and found none.  Hopefully, someone can give me some insight into
this, and let me know what to do.  I am afraid it is still too early to make
a split, though it has been a mild winter. The weather can change here too
quickly.  What about the unmarked queen?  Is she a drone layer, or only
preparing to swarm?  Thanks all!
Scott
Visit the Jefferson County Beekeepers Association web site at:
http://JeffersonCoBeekeepers.homestead.com/