This is my very first hive and so maybe I’m just being extra cautious or maybe I didn’t catch the problem quickly enough, but I think that there may be too many drones in the hive. I have some frames full of what I believe to be worker brood and then other frames full of drone brood. I’ve read that the hive should consist of 10-20% drone and this feels like closer to 50%.
For some context this is a brand new hive that I started from a package on April 6th, 2024. The bees built out the brood box slowly and steadily and I fed them a sugar syrup and I didn’t think much of it other than maybe having a few more drones than I expected to have initially. This past weekend I checked on the hive and the bees had built out about 6/7 full frames. I noticed on one of the frames what looked like a queen cell, and from further research, like a supersedure cell. I also spotted the queen during this inspection so I know the hive isn’t queenless. Now I don’t know whether to let nature take its course or cull the queen or cull the queen cell in hopes that this is just a young queen learning the ropes.
Any and all advice on the matter are much appreciated!
Hi Nath, welcome to the forum. The bees built more drone comb because that’s what they wanted after they first concentrated on the number of worker comb they wanted.
The colony wants to pass on it’s genes, which is why it produces so many drones. The more drones, the better the chances a colony has of achieving this.
You can avoid a colony producing so many drones by using frames with foundation, which is what I do.
I prefer the incorrect statement in the video “Nova, Bee Tales From a Hive”, where they say that each colony has around a hundred drones. That’s way less than 10-20%. However 10-20% is probably more accurate when bees are able to build what they want. Bare in mind that each colony will have a different ratio of workers to drones.
This sounds like good progress. I’m thinking that even though you identified that QC as a supercedure cell, it’s possible your bees may be preparing to swarm. When the brood area becomes fully built and there’s a good nectar flow on, the colony directs the queen to make lots of drones as added reproductive insurance as @JeffH said, starts making queen cells and then has the queen stop laying in preparation for flight. I would probably look to split this colony now.
The cell in the picture is torn open showing a developing pupa - was it located in the center of a frame? Do you know how it got opened, ie an accident during inspection or was it like that already indicating the workers decided to do away with it?
Thanks so much for all the replies. To answer some of your questions, I found the Queen Cell in the very center of the frame and it was open when I removed the frame. It’s possible that occurred during my inspection but I was pretty careful once I saw the cell.
I think I am going to add a second brood box this weekend and let the bees handle themselves as far as this issue is concerned
