This is an interesting observation--since queens avoid laying unfertilized eggs in worker cells. So it makes me wonder whether what you are observing is the rearing of diploid drones. Polaczek (2000, citation below) found that colonies would indeed rear diploid drones to maturity in autumn, rather than consuming the larvae as they do earlier in the season. A new, simple method for rearing diploid drones in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dee5/d38ff1ccfa7968dc41f3b5f9e6cd9078bb05.pdf -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html