Chilled brood or foulbrood? On my last inspection, I went from worried to horrified to hopeful.
As a reminder, this is a new package installed May 26, mostly foundationless, and I have been feeding steadily ever since. All equipment is new. The new comb was a mess and I had to cut it out and move it around. May have ended up with some chilled brood due to that process. Hive is in a valley, not at the low point but it has rained a LOT this year.
1. Hive has two mediums, with about 7 frames each filled out, but much of the comb is empty. I was ready to add a medium but they were far from ready.
2. No honey stores. Plenty of pollen.
3. Queen is laying like mad.
4. A lot of dark cells. I took many pictures, just a few posted below. However, I used the sun instead of the flash for light, so maybe the darkness is photography issue? Still, I can see small dark larvae next to small light larvae.
5. Lots of bad brood pattern. I didn't expect it to all be pretty as I had to move comb around a lot to get the early mess straightened out...but I did expect to see some nice patterns by now. And I've never seen cells that looked that dark. But then again, I'm a newbee.
I can't post pictures through Imageshack, try though I might. So sorry but have to request that you go to my beeblog, where I've posted lots of pictures.
http://hilltopbee.blogspot.com/