Yes they were drones. IMO next time you are in the hive you must find the queen and/or eggs, the queen has a long and slender abdomen not short and stumpy like the drones. The eggs should be in the very centre at bottom of the cell and one of not multiple eggs on the sides of the cells. If you have multiple eggs on sides of the cell then you do have a laying worker and they have killed your queen, I hope I am wrong. If it turns out you do indeed have a laying worker then your best option is to take those bees far from your hives and just shake them out, it will be too much work to bring them back now and you do not want to combine with another hive now as you will just transfer the laying worker/s to the donor hive.
thanks for the info. I noticed the drone cells prior to adding the new queen. Would the new queen be OK....or would the laying worker(s) have had a issue with the new queen and the outcome for the new queen be ? Bad?
Yes they were drones. IMO next time you are in the hive you must find the queen and/or eggs, the queen has a long and slender abdomen not short and stumpy like the drones. The eggs should be in the very centre at bottom of the cell and one of not multiple eggs on the sides of the cells. If you have multiple eggs on sides of the cell then you do have a laying worker and they have killed your queen, I hope I am wrong. If it turns out you do indeed have a laying worker then your best option is to take those bees far from your hives and just shake them out, it will be too much work to bring them back now and you do not want to combine with another hive now as you will just transfer the laying worker/s to the donor hive.
thanks for the info. I noticed the drone cells prior to adding the new queen. Would the new queen be OK....or would the laying worker(s) have had a issue with the new queen and the outcome for the new queen be ? Bad?
@ if you have a laying worker then they have likely killed her