BRIAN HENSEL wrote:

> When checking the brood area, everything looks great
> except there are a number of drones stuck half way out when emerging
> from their cells. Some of the drones are alive and others are dead. The
> bee's have started to remove some of them that have died, and you can
> see where the bee's have cut into the wax cells in an effort to try and
> free the drones. These drones are in worker cells, and the cappings
> protrude outward above the comb surface. This has occurred in my best
> productive hive and one other hive, and I was wondering if this is a
> sign of a problem.

This is most definitely a sign of a problem, which most beekeepers will
see from time to time:  Your queen has run out of sperm and become a drone
layer.  The best treatment, IMHO, is to find the queen and kill her and
combine the colony with another good one. One other possibility is that if
the hive has been queenless for some time you might have laying workers.
However, from what you relate here this does not seem to be the trouble.

Ted Fischer
Dexter, Michigan USA