Capped brood in flow hive

altho have queen excluder, the lady manage to ‘squeeze’ thru and lay some eggs in my flowhive?? now have some capped brood
have others experienced this issue??

Hi @cottles, I have the same problem, I mentioned it on an other category.
Still waiting for some advice. I’ll keep watching.

I also had the same issue. It was a small section on top of the flow frame and looked like all drones so I assumed a laying worker?

Check the integrity of the queen excluder.

The issue with drone cells in the super is that drones cannot get out of the hive. You’ll have to leave a small opening at the top for them to escape. A pencil wedged between the cover board should work.

The next issue is how the cocoon left over will affect the harvest. If it’s a small area, you may get away with it. The bees will store honey. If it’s a large area, you may have to dismantle and clean…

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Either your queen excluder isnt up to the job or
the queen was on the excluder when you last inspected and you reversed it when you put it back on,trapping her there or
its a few eggs laid by a drone laying worker which didnt get removed by the ‘police’.

You mentioned ‘some eggs’. Does that mean that the queen has continued to lay in the brood box?
If the queen is still in the brood box,its unlikley she visited the super, laid a few egges and returned, unless the excluder is really bad.
If it’s just a few eggs there I would tend to favour option three, the laying worker. All hives have a few from time to time, but they are usually supressed and kept under control.
I would confirm that the queen is still in the brood box and laying, examine the excluder for faults or invest in a good one.

By the way, a queen laying in the super will usually lay drones because the super cell size is usually that for drone eggs.

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