[Laurieston]

Had a quick peek under the lids of my hives today and was surprised and puzzled.  Anyone got any ideas?

The top of the supers was full of drones, buzzing they were.  I watched as many many took off and flew away.  More seemed to come up from below and also flew off.  They buzzed really loudly, not aggressive soundingly, but just buzzing.  The same happened in both hives.  I wondered if maybe they had got stuck in the hive and couldn't get out, and now that I had openned the roof they had the chance.  Can drones get through a queen excluder?  Maybe they were stuck above the QE and desperately wanted out.

Any ideas?

[cloddopper]

A queen can  wane and become a drone layer or she is dead and a couple of females have turned into drone egg layers that will carry on laying drone eggs till the hive becomes unviable and dies  as drones don't collect nectar,  pollen , water or help cool the hive .

 If you have access to a live hive cut a fresh brood frame just below the middle of a series of new laid eggs and cut the wax away below it so that you have an upright egg or two with the bottom of the cell removed , put it with another frame of eggs & brood drawn frames & stores in the hive so you'll  have plenty of new bees to replace all losses  .
The bees will draw one of these cut egg filled cells into a new sealed queen cell . If you get too many new queen cells you can always use one carefully pinned to / hung in  a hole cut low in a frame of open eggs & brood in a neuc box to give yourself a big boost of new bees come mid July .
 

[Caroline1]

I agree, my first thought was a laying worker to produce so many drones. Good luck with the re-queening.