Inspected one colony that I suspected might be going drone layer. It was 10C and very dull.
The bees were feisty attacking my hands continuously and pinging my veil. It was noisy.
I found large slabs of drone brood, capped and uncapped. The foundation free frames 100% drone.
Where there is worker brood, the pattern is good with no empty cells. One frame of worker foundation was 75% drone, fully laid up with the rest fully laid up as worker, so not the speckled cell appearance of a failing queen.
The bees had no food and on the point of starving. Drones were being evicted and dying outside the hive.
I am undecided whether this queen is failing, or is the weather and lack of food causing her to stop laying - I found no eggs?
A fully drawn frame of worker cells was egg free.
Also, did the weather conditions cause the feistiness? Last week they were feisty and I had a couple of followers that I dealt with.
Today, no followers as they were keen to get inside! It was raining as I closed up.
I gave them slices of fondant onto the qx, as I had given them a super two weeks ago, when things seemed very different!
What a Spring!