In a message dated 4/25/99 12:10:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> This morning I inspected both hives, in one of the hives I was surprised to
>  see in the super above the QX covering about 3 inches (on one frame only)
>  Drone brood capped and uncapped also eggs. I could not see any worker brood
>  at all.  Neither could I see any queen in the super.
>    I carried on and went into the brood chamber under the QX and there she
>  was the marked Queen with eggs , worker brood both capped and uncapped.
>  Any suggestions on what is happening and what do you think I should do, I
>  am located in the north west of England.

    You may have a damaged excluder, or a smaller than normal queen that
moves back and forth. It's easy to have a bent wire on the excluder that you
don't notice.

    Remember too that bees *need* to have some drone brood. If they don't
have it in the brood chamber, they will make burr comb between boxes, or the
queen will try harder to get through the excluder. Sometimes they will tear
out worker brood comb to make drone comb.

    I've heard that it is possible to have laying workers, even with a good
queen, but that's just speculation on my part.......     I've never
personally seen evidence of this. Laying workers place the eggs on the sides
of the cells rather than the bottom, so if you can find eggs, you can
determine this. There are also rumors of workers moving eggs, but I'm more
skeptical of this....  You can search the archives for more info; it's been
discussed.

[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
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