> Just a Guess , but getting ready for an autumn Queen change/superseding?

I have one hive showing this pattern of drone laying, and last week cleared out a patch of 3 swarm cells. It was the only hive (of 10) showing this pattern. It was a strong hive, and I had used it as the base for a combination with a weak split. The queen in the split prospered with the extra workers, and both upper and lower queens were laying well into July. I separated the hives to build them up for winter (we have spotty blooms now, although the Japanese knotweed is up, with fields of goldenrod getting ready to come into bloom); two weeks later, when I came back to add an excluder and honey super, I saw the drone pattern up top and did a full teardown, revealing the queen cells. She also has three solid frames of worker brood in the lower super. Stores were low, although I fed both hives after splitting them apart. The split got to keep the honey super that was separating the two hives, as the queen was laying in it (the QE was below). Stores were light in the super as well.

I'm going to go take a look tomorrow to see what's going on.

S

Skillman, NJ

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