>Hence the colony avoids making drones in the wrong place at the expense of a patchy brood pattern.

I caught a swarm last spring and upon inspection about a month later observed drone cells scattered (none together) throughout the 4-5 brood frames.  I was thinking that it was perhaps a failing swarm queen or just the 1st laying pattern of a newly mated queen as the strange drone pattern was no longer in evidence when checked for in early summer.  Wondering now if this was due to a queen mating with mostly drones from the same colony as was quite different than drone laying patterns I've seen from failing queens or laying workers.  It is possible the bees replaced the initial starting queen and saved me the trouble of replacement.

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