Hi Jack, I use all single brood boxes & yes you do get that a lot. The bees will leave a lot of cells completely empty for the queen to lay in. I extracted a lot of recent honey from frames with large areas of empty cells. I try to restrict my bees from building large areas of drone comb in the brood, therefore I’ll find a lot of drone comb in the honey supers completely empty & ready for the queen to lay in. Very similar to the photos posted by @Jimmy & yourself.
Jeff, how do you stop the bees building drone comb?
I’m coming into my first spring with my first hive and when I had a look today I noticed the first frame had alot of drone cells (at least that’s what they look like to me). It appeared to be the only frame with any significant number of drone cells (I’ve included the picture I took…I’ve actually been photographing most of my frames each inspection so I can learn the changes and more easily monitor for changes over time. Interestingly, at least to me, this first frame was left untouched for all of autumn and winter. The bees have built the frame out from the wax foundation in the last 3wks).
Thanks,
Alan
New beekeeper here, attending a lot of classes I’m expecting this response to get edited and/or reply to.
One of the things I recently learned from some old-time beekeepers, when they are building an excessive amount of drones, it is one of the very 1st signs of potential swarming. They are preparing to breed a new Queen, yes they do not breed with each other but it’s one of the signs.
I posted an earlier comment/post about Mr Eddie Woods which lived during World War II. He listened to the sound of these and among the scientific research that was performed, this was among the outcomes.
There’s actually a device now, that can listen to your bees and give you some indications of whether or not they are in stress preparing for new Queen or have a honey flow going on. Mr Eddie Woods during the war to develop the 1st device.
Here’s an interview with Mister Woods from the early 60s
Scroll to the bottom and you can listen to the audio interview on BBC
Here’s an interview with Mister Woods from the early 60s
Hi Alan, during spring they’ll build as much drone comb as they can afford to. As well as making lots of drones, the hives will also buildup to swarming strength. If I find a frame like that, I’ll normally use it in a split or add it to a weaker colony & replace it with fresh foundation. If I put it above a QX, I’ll cut the drone comb out first, especially if it’s the same on both sides.