Scott Moser wrote:

> Greetings all,
>      .  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.
>   What about the unmarked queen?  Is she a drone layer, or only
> preparing to swarm?  Thanks all!
> Scott
>  Hello Scott,

 Here are some possibilities.You did get a new queen that was not mated
correctly in the winter.You could have had some drones still in the hive or
another hive during the winter. I have been seeing some drones all winter in
some of my hives.The bees have been getting some pollen mixture by me, so they
will keep the drones.
 The hive in question is  in real trouble without a new fertile queen..You can
add the bees to another hive if you can't get another queen at this time.I had a
problem with a drone layer yesterday and joined it with a weak hive.
 Mild weather brings on different Bee behavior in the winter.It is mild here in
western Washington US and I have been doing some different winter work with my
bees. It looks like mid-april in my hives and they will need splitting soon.This
is the best wintering year ever for me in 30 + years. I still had 3 hives go
into drone laying out of 100 in a low land area. I do not understand the
correlation if there is any do to elevation.Plenty to learn and it never ends.
 Best Regards
Roy Nettlebeck
Tahuya River Apiaries
Tahuya Washington US