# Should I split my hive? Also, are these queen cells?! This newbie needs some help...



## Billboard (Dec 28, 2014)

No those are not queen cells. Thats actually drone brood. Typically drones are raised in any spare places they find. When drones are raised in worker comb they look like 9mm bullets. When they are raised in drone comb they look like worker brood just larger. A queen cell will look like a peanut hanging on the frame, you can not miss it.


----------



## StoneHillRidge (Jun 17, 2016)

This is only my second year, but in my unofficial non-expert opinion those are definitely not queen cells. Maybe drone, but don't know for sure. 

The other thing I learned last year in a similar situation is that you need to know whether or not you still have a honey flow before adding the box. I added a box too late in the season and while the bees didn't use it, the small hive beetles sure did and I lost the hive. Wait for more expert opinions, but if you add the box and the bees don't use it in a week or two I would consider taking it back off before something else decides to move in.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Queen cells are vertical. Those are all horizontal and are drone cells.


----------



## clarekate (Mar 13, 2016)

Thank goodness! I got worried and kept second guessing myself. Thanks!

Any thought about why so many empty frames in the bottom deep or if I need to do anything differently?


----------



## DanielD (Jul 21, 2012)

If you've never seen eggs, you probably can't see them for some reason and the empty cells have eggs in them. Or they have just been cleaned out and waiting for the queen to lay in them. Take a very good close-up photo of cells and look at them on your computer, or take a magnifying glass.


----------



## DanielD (Jul 21, 2012)

If you look at the larva on a given frame and follow as they get smaller as you go out to the edge of a frame, at the point you see no larva and the cells seem empty, that's probably where eggs are at.


----------



## clarekate (Mar 13, 2016)

Sounds good! Thanks everyone for your help


----------

