Need Advice - Drone Brood in Honey Super

[deknow]

i would not suggest this.  the bees are making drone brood becasue they want them.  by the time the drone brood is capped, there is a huge investment in them.  scrapping them will simply make the bees want to make more drone brood...invest all over again.  if not in the supers (where the comb is relatively new, and easy to rework into drone cells), then between the boxes, in burr comb, etc).

the bees are making drones for a reason.  they will continue making drones for the same reason until they think they have enough.  drones are expensive to make (which is why bees make them in times of plenty).

deknow

Hi,People are upset because I didn't answer your question and was more concerned about if you have laying workers. So, I will say,If they are full of drone brood and not much honey,throw it all away if you like or cut the brood out and throw it and you can put the honey back in or squeeze it. If I was sure I had a queen by seeing the queen or tight laid new eggs that only had one egg in a cell,I would be fine but tight capped brood don't tell me I have a queen.
 I don't know everything but I don't speak what i'm not sure of.

[sarafina]

Joelel - I re-read my original post and realized I didn't specify that I found worker brood in the top brood box, which is why I was so excited.  Sorry for the confusion.  This hive has been quite the learning experience for me - thanks for your concern and advice!

deknow - I am taking your advice and leaving the drone brood alone to hatch out.  I bought a queen excluder yesterday, so I will insert it this weekend and prop the top lid so they can get out.  Hopefully, the girls will backfill with some Fall honey!

[Joelel]

Joelel - I re-read my original post and realized I didn't specify that I found worker brood in the top brood box, which is why I was so excited.  Sorry for the confusion.  This hive has been quite the learning experience for me - thanks for your concern and advice!

deknow - I am taking your advice and leaving the drone brood alone to hatch out.  I bought a queen excluder yesterday, so I will insert it this weekend and prop the top lid so they can get out.  Hopefully, the girls will backfill with some Fall honey!

 

Bees know what is needed in their hive, if they build drone brood,then they need them. I was saying,if you had a supper full of drone there is something wrong, if you don't want them in there,then get them out,bees never build a compleat supper full of drone,their nuts or something.

[sarafina]

Here's an update on the newly re-queened hive with all the drone brood in the foundationsless honey super:

I bought a queen excluder to put in between the honey super and top brood box.  I am glad I pulled the frames first instead of just lifting the box off because now I have lots of worker larvae in there along with some drone brood left.  In case the queen didn't run when I lightly smoked them (of course my smoker decided to go out about this time since I was using some new smoker fuel pellets and haven't gotten the hang of them yet) I pulled each frame to make sure she wasn't up there because I didn't want to trap her in the super.  I inserted the excluder and propped the lid so the drones can get out once they hatch.  I don't know when they are kicked out around here - we are several months away from anything that resembles cold weather.

I am hoping the girls will backfill the super with some honey so I can get a Fall harvest also.  They have plenty downstairs for our mild winters.