Easy but laborious to sort if you know why the workers lay.
I asked because it would have a bearing on whether Dunc should take the frame or wait some considerable time for a new queen.[quote=“Valli, post:20, topic:5268”]
3 weeks Min as she needs to be mated and hopefully laying so late in the season
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This is where our native bee outperforms everything else. She flies at lower temperatures and has made a success of apiary vicinity mating so drone congregation areas and fine weather are not essential.
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Drones still going strong in Sydney, another 1-2 months before they will get kicked out. A couple of species of eucalypts are about to come into flower so hopefully another box of honey to harvest before winter.
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You have a long season then
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When do you winter your hives in Sydney? How much honey do you tend to leave for them?
Wintering the hive is in May, though we don’t do anything special. The rule is for every frame of brood you leave a frame of honey. I make sure there is a full honey frame on either side of the brood box, this gives the brood insulation and then I leave 4-5 full frames of honey in a super on top. Sydney has very mild winters, the italian bees consume most of the honey, the caucasian dark bees have been bringing in nectar over winter. Thats just my experience not every beekeeper will see the same results.
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Same here in the UK. Quite a few people keep Italian bees but they are not the best suited.
Carniolans do well here but are nicknamed Swarmiolans. Buckfast are hybrid of the two.
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I know beeks say they swarm but my Carnies have not attempted so far 
That’s because they were a nuc last year and looking at your video they are still a small colony.
The cold weather might be keeping them in so far 
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Checked the hive yesterday and there’s capped brood… 
based on dates they must be from the new queen.
I saw larvae too but there was a fair amount of capped drones… and so wasnt confident they were from a queen.
Were there eggs?
What was the distribution of the drones?
Bit early for laying workers…
I ddin’t have my glasses on, so had no chance of seeing eggs. I had two 8 frame boxes below the queen excluder. I went into the top one only and checked about 4 frames, from outside in. I didn’t want to cause too much disturbance, only wanted to confirm she was laying.
The capped drone cells were generally at the top of the arc and it was probs 50:50 capped drones to capped workers. Approximately 30-40% the cells inside the pollen arc were capped There weren’t heaps of larvae but she may be sticking mainly to the bottom box. The drone cells were grouped together in bunches of about 50 cells each.
A lot of the cells contained a very glossy/clear substance - could this be royal jelly? I couldn’t see any larvae in there but if they were small I could have missed them due to the reflection off the liquid?
Sounds pretty normal. Drones are normally near the outside of the frame in the cooler areas of the hive.
Sounds a bit high, but estimating can be hard.
Very likely on both counts - sounds good so far. I would leave them another week, then take another look.
Hi Duncan, I would not tolerate such a large % of drones. Despite what others say, I like around 5-10% drones in my brood frames. If I get a large % of drone comb, I’ll cut it out, the whole frame that is & replace it with fresh foundation.
How you do that is up to you, personally I cut the drone comb out, put that frame above the QX, let the worker brood hatch, let the bees fill the frame with honey before extracting the honey & then cut the comb out to start again.
I’m assuming there are less drones cells in the bottom brood box. do you think that is likely? Is it worth checking before cutting out drone cells? I’m nervous about going into the bottom box having already killed one queen and thought it best not to disturb the new one too much whilst she’s settling in.
A fun thing that happened last time I harvested honey…
I was taking some of the frames from the upper brood box that were mostly honey with a few small sections of capped drones and happened to take them just at the right time for the drones to be hatching. So I cut out those drone sections and put them on the side in the kitchen for my kids to watch hatch. Presumably they were all laid around the same time because they all hatched within a few hours of each other. My kids were engrossed and able to handle the drones without fear of stings. Definitely a cool exercise with kids if you are lucky enough to time it right.
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This is not a personal attack so chill.
I am baffled why so many beginners do not look for eggs. It is the second thing that will tell you if your queen is there. It is a crucial part of any inspection.
Too many other things are happening and they are all new. Perhaps you can’t remember your first contact.
Looking for eggs and Larvae is the next step when confidence is gained in handling the bees.
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Hi Duncan, don’t be too concerned about cutting too much drone comb out. Yes for sure, look in the bottom box. What you need to do is look over the frames & carefully take the one out that you perceive to be the easiest one to pull out. Rest it somewhere, then proceed to take each frame out one by one, checking as you go. Always give yourself room to pull the next frame out without killing any bees.
One thing we all need is practice at checking the brood. The brood being the most important part of the hive. You would be better off getting practice & making mistakes than not getting practice & not make any mistakes.
There’s so many things to look out for in the brood. Signs of disease, signs of a colony preparing to swarm & more.
Good luck with it Duncan, bye for now.
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The first thing we were taught at bee school after taking a frame out was how to spot eggs. And yes I do remember my first steps. I wasn’t having a go at anybody. I was wondering why that’s all.
I know you were’t having a go at any body and I don’t think anyone thought you were either. 
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