Is the queen confused

Hey guys,

I live in Sydney and the weather has been up and down with rain and sun, on my brood inspection last week I found that in one of my hives the queen had layed both drone and brood.

My question is could the queen be confused about the weather and what season they are in and what sea on is coming up.the hive is approx 1.5 months old, both of my nucs were purchased from a reputable bee farmer.

Both of my hives have amazing brood patterns.

Thanks for your help

My climate is pretty similar to yours, and my queens sometimes continuing laying drones into October (equivalent of April for you). She then stops laying drones, but continues with worker brood. She usually starts laying drones again in mid to late December. :blush:

Thanks Dawn, I appreciate you responding. Have a great weekend.

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I’m up on the Sunshine Coast. While working my bees this morning, a swarm issued. Therefore the bees are confident of being able to rebuild during the coming months. Therefore, with that mindset, they’ll keep producing drones. The bees will continue to produce drones while they think there is a chance that a virgin queen will need mating. Even after the last swarm has issued, there’s always the possibility that emergency queens will need to get mated. With that in mind, it would be fair to assume that colonies will keep drones while it’s possible for virgin queens to perform mating flights. That would coincide with when major predators (in the natural world), bears for example go into hibernation.

The queen can’t get confused, she’s just an egg laying machine. She only lays eggs in cells that have been prepared for her specifically for the purpose of raising brood. It’s the colony that determines that. Then she will be fed according to how many eggs the colony wants her to lay.

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