Drones are gone

I did a hive inspection yesterday and noticed that throughout the entire hive there are no drone larvae or pupae.  All comb sized for drones is either completely empty or being used to store nectar.  I also noticed no adult drones in the hive or hanging around outside the hive as they often did.  There are, however, plenty of female workers and many more on the way.  There is also some honey, a reasonable amount of nectar, and a lot of pollen.  One of the combs is even completely filled with pollen on both sides.  Nonetheless, I'll probably want to feed them a few more times before winter starts.

One interesting thing I noticed the other week on the 17th comb from the entrance was the formation of several queen cups along to side edges of the comb.  These a small up-side-down cups that worker sometimes build along the edges of combs.  They are used to grown new queens.  Although I haven't seen the queen I know that she is still laying eggs, so I'm not sure what the queen cups mean.  I'll want to keep and eye on it.