From your description, those would be either cones for next year 9 (green in color most likely, heavy weighting the brances down) or spent cones from this season. All plants respond to external stimuli and this year for a lot of plants it means producing flowers and seed. If these branches are critical to the trees shape and form, and if appropriate you could provide some temporary support until next year when they open up and begin to loose that weight. they could be pruned away or a portion of the cones/flowers removed to allow the branches to return to their normal orientation. Check with your local extension office for a more localized and specific remedy.