In message <[log in to unmask]>, Dee 
Lusby <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Certainly the queen isn't running back and forth
>between the top and bottom part of the unlimited broodnest?
>How would you rationalize this behaviour?

Why not?

I see this kind of pattern frequently. Nothing unusual about it.

We operate with excluders for management purposes throughout the early 
summer and in late June go over to unlimited nests to get lots and lots 
of bees for our key mid August flowering.

It is not unusual at all to see brood present in odd places, especially 
if the hive and/or its surroundings are very warm. It is also common for 
the bottom box to contain relatively little brood for some parts of this 
period, almost becoming a nectar dump for the field force, and the main 
active nest being above it, moving downwards as the upper boxes fill. 
Seeing only a few patches of brood and eggs in the bottom box of four 
would be something I would expect at certain times and circumstances, 
and consider quite normal, especially if I have given the colony an 
excess of drawn comb head space. You can often also get one side of 
brood away up the hive, seemingly at random, but of course as the season 
draws to a close, the night-time temps drop away, and the late crop 
fills the upper boxes, it all tends to re-rationalise and reconfigures 
back to normality.

Next spring its just the same queen that is there.

If the temperature profile in the hive and its surroundings are suitable 
they can exhibit some seemingly quite odd behaviour as regards broodnest 
organisation, but if the imperative to keep it all tight and together 
for temperature control is absent it seems she will lay just about 
anywhere and will quite happily jump about all over the place. Chaotic 
nests are not so common as the small patches in the bottom box, and are 
not apparently linked to anything much more than temperature and heavy 
nectar flow, and re-organise once conditions stabilise again to the bees 
normal range.

Different bees, different climate. Not sure what conclusions, if any can 
be drawn that are relevant to Arizona, but was surprised that it was 
mooted that the queen could not be doing this. With us she does, and 
very commonly.
-- 
Murray McGregor

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