Hi Blair. you have some good questions there and they show that you are getting into the brood nest and observing. That's really important in developing an understanding of what is going on in the hive. I'll respond to your questions in turn. >Two months when I was suffering from queenlessness in my only hive, I >requeened, and now have some observations and questions. > >A good consistent brood pattern, indicating the queen is laying suggest the >hive is heathly. > >More drone cells than I had previously observed-- perhaps several dozen >together near the bottom of each of the half dozen frames I examined >yesterday. Is this normal, or is a problem? Yes, this is normal. Usually this time of year drone production drops off in our area (mid-atlantic), but a newly introduced queen will produce drones a little longer than an older queen. It would be a problem if you started seeing drone brood in the middle or mixed in with the worker brood (indicating that the queen may becoming a drone layer). > >I have two deep brood boxes, and one new shallow super. The bees have not >drawn out any foundation in the super. I removed the queen excluder in >early June. You might as well go ahead and take off the super. The honey flow is finished in our area. It ended in mid June. We don't get enough of a fall flow here to draw comb. By taking your foundation off now you will prevent the bees from chewing up your foundation wax. They will move the wax around, making quite a mess of the nice new foundation or worse yet with Duragilt they chew the wax off the plastic rendering the foundation useless. >When I work the bees, they are a little more "hyper" than before. I >attribute this to the new queen's genetic contribution. Am I right? My >original queen was a carolian from Weavers, I now have an Italian from >Hardemans. Good observation. What you are seeing is not necessarily a stock change expression but a change in behavior at the end of a honey flow. When the honey flow has ended the bees become more defensive. Italians can be a little "hotter" than carniolans, but I think you are seeing the typical sefensiveness at the end of a honey flow. >In June, the top brood box was heavy with honey. It is lighter now. Do I >need to feed the bees this fall and winter? In our area you need approximately 60 lbs of honey to winter a colony. More of course is better. To estimate this - a deep comb will hold approximately 8 to 9 lbs of honey. Just as important as honey is a good population of healthy mite free bees to go into the winter. Use the vegetable oil patties to control the tracheal mites and Apistan for the Varroa mites. I recommend that people monitor (ether roll method) for varroa and treat when mites show up in the test. A late Summer feeding in an area where the fall flow is uncertain will stimulate the queen and give you a better population of healthy bees to going into winter. >I live in a heavily treed suburban section of Arlington, VA, with lots of >tulip poplar trees and normal suburban vegetation. I noticed this May/June >that the Tulip Poplar flowering was less prolific than in prior years. What >causes this? Seasonal variation is my best guess. This year in your area the Black Locust trees did very well. The bees will fly right past a Tulip Poplar to go to a Black Locust. After smelling the Balck Locust can you blame them? >How do I convince my bees to get on with it and starting building out some >foundation in the top super? Build them up - get them through the winter - and give them the foundation next year. Remember - Next years crop starts this Fall. good luck Gordy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Gordon Allen-Wardell Extension Apiculturist Department Of Entomology Univeristy of Maryland College Park, MD 20742-5575 301 405-3953 email - [log in to unmask]