# too many drone cells?



## big joe (May 8, 2011)

hi all, i had a laying worker issue with my only hive. i didnt have the resources to deal with it like mr bush suggests.(i will next year.) i ended up getting a queen in there and a medium frame w/about 20 % capped brood on it about 12 days ago. i looked today and the frame was mostly capped brood and there were young bees in there,they are cute! anyhow i think i need more brood and there are 2 frames with drone brood i dont think i need, can i scrape these and will they repair and make worker brood there? or should i let them alone and see what they do? thanks in advance. btw i installed the 3# package in early may. i know, shoulda took a class.


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## beyondthesidewalks (Dec 1, 2007)

big joe said:


> . i know, shoulda took a class.


Or found a mentor.

From what you describe the queen is laying unless the brood is just more drone brood. Can you find the queen? For now I'd just let the drone brood stay unless you have a varroa problem. You can either do a screen test or disrupt a few drone cells with a toothpick to see if varroa are present. If you find varroa in the drone brood pull the frames that are all drone brood and freeze them to kill the varroa mites. After they've frozen to death you can put the frames back in the hive and the bees will clean them up. If the frames are all drone size cells even a queen will only lay drone brood in them.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Did you see any eggs laid by you're new queen? That would be my number 1 priority right now.
It can be hard to requeen a laying worker hive.


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## big joe (May 8, 2011)

she is laying very well in a medium frame i borrowed, all the other comb(2 frames) has about 10% capped drone brood cells in the middle. the med frame came with nurse bees and about 20% capped brood and now there is about 80% capped brood and other age larvea. i see her everytime i look for her(got a marked one) i need the bees to get more comb ready. or i need the proper age bees to do this and i think she would do her job. what bees do this work? i was thinking of getting rid of the drone cells in the hopes of the proper comb size for workers.


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

The bees that are the wax workers are usually 5 to 15 day old bees. Once the comb is drawn out in drone sized cells they seldom rework it in worker sized cells. If that section was cut out and removed they may redraw the area in worker cells but usually they just make drone cells again.


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## big joe (May 8, 2011)

so, what if i pull that and replace with new foundation? i kinda dont want to mess with them since she is laying on that med frame well, but if they dont get busy they will be pretty small going into winter. i did plan on 2 more packages in the spring maybe i will need three. i think i am going to cut out the drone area on one and leave the other and see what happens. i will post what they do. (if anyone is interested.) i do like experiments.


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## Kazzandra (Jul 7, 2010)

big joe said:


> s. i think i am going to cut out the drone area on one and leave the other and see what happens. i will post what they do. (if anyone is interested.) i do like experiments.


Let us know how it goes! :thumbsup:


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