Lots of Mistakes, Issues, and still a good amount of honey. Need direction.

[abelltx]

Before reading this, know that I have one hive and I am new-bee.

About a month ago, I saw a lot of Queen Cells and couldn't see a Queen in sight. I let them hatch, and saw the new queen but no eggs, so I killed her and still had a few queen cells left. (I realize now it takes a few days before she gets mated, my mistake.) I was down to one Queen cell when I decided to order a Queen. This hive had been aggressive and I figured now would be a good time to bring in a docile breed Queen (buckfast). I introduced her to the hive, after the final Queen cell was open but no Queen to be found. So I figured I was lucky and got my mated Queen in time.

She was released by me 24 hours after being introduced. I stupidly however, didn't check to see if there were any eggs or the Queen returned mated. Of course, I found eggs after my purchased queen was let go. So now I had one of two possibilities, two-queens or a laying worker.

a full-week later, my purchased Queen is gone/dead, and I saw a very large new Queen laying eggs. My latest problem is the brood. Almost every other cell looks to be a drone. There's one frame of great loooking brood without any drones, but I believe that's from the purchased Queen before she was killed.


I either have a superseded Queen, or a laying worker in the mix. Should I just wait it out to see if the laying worker gives up or dies? Or should I split and hope there's one cell in there for them to rear a queen?

Thoughts, Opinions, ideas?

[riverrat]

if i would have found queen cells in a hive that was swarm cells i believe i would have split the hive once the swarming impulse has set off you cant stop it. usually when a new queen hatches she will go to the other queen cells that are unhatched and chew a hole in the side and kill the queen before it emerges. I certainly wouldn't have killed the queen you found as you said you should have waited awhile to see if she begins to lay. i have heard buckfast bees become aggressive if they supercede but then again any strain can be that way especially since 99 percent of the queens sold are producing mutts especially if they are open mated. If you had a second hive i would have added a frame of eggs to see if they would make a queen cell that is about the best test i can think of to see if a hive is queen right. I usually wont release a queen until it has been in the hive for a week 24 hours is a bit to soon they will release here when they are ready. however i have had limited experience with bought queens as i prefer my hives raise there own so i can keep the genetics of my good hives. the main thing is is to take a step back figure out what you have done you wouldn't have done given the chance to do it over again and apply what you learned the next time :)

[abelltx]

My main concern now is what about all these drones in the brood?

[riverrat]

if you had a queen in the hive i would say the queen you released was killed fairly quickly after you released her. a queen right colony shouldn't  have a laying worker problem you are not saying where your seeing the mixed drone brood if its out on the outside of the brood circle it is not uncommon for that to have drones or on the outside frames of the brood nest you may have a queen that did not  get mated properly mated or she may have got injured. I would give it a couple of weeks to see if she  is laying a good brood pattern if not i would consider re queening

[Kathyp]

ditto.  sometimes the best thing to do is nothing.  give her time and see how things look later.  when a hive is going to swarm or supersede a queen, they often have lots of drone brood.  that's where you were.  now you have a good queen and they are probably happy.  you may still have lots of drone brood.  that seems to be the norm for many of us this year, but if most of the brood is not drone, don't worry about it.  
deep breath   :-D