when a spotty brood pattern isn't

[Kathyp]

gotta love these observation hives!

someone wrote about a problem with spotty brood. they had seen the queen, but also saw what they thought was a poor brood pattern. 

i was just looking at the brood frame i had chosen for my observation hive.  when i picked it, it had capped brood  and some small larvae.  there was some honey, and quite a few cells that looked empty.  as it turns out, most of those "empty" cells must have had eggs in them.  the queen had been on that frame and i moved her back into the hive.  she had been laying in those empty cells and they now contain visible larvae.

sometimes a spotty pattern is nothing more than cell that have hatched out and been reused by the queen.  we just can't see the eggs!

[timdalyiii]

Thanks kathyp!  That makes me feel better about my last inspection.

I'm in my fourth week of my first hive.  I feel like an unsure parent.

[josbees]

Cool!  I Sure hope that's what I've not been seeing.  Or seeing.  Thanks for the post!

[Frantz]

Kathy,
I still want pics of that OB hive of yours. I have built a couple like mine (2 framers). I want to see yours and I will try to build something similar to yours as well. Is yours set up for medium frames or deeps?
F

[Kathyp]

it is set up for deeps.  every picture i have taken has glare.  i need to get one in the right light and not use flash.  sorry i have been delinquent in this.

it is much like this one, but has more wood and is a little smaller.  5 deep frames.  the general set us is the same.

http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/observationhive.phtml

[doak]

The best way to read a "spotty" pattern is when you can find a frame that has all brood approx. the same age, say half way to capping.Then you look and count for cells that have nothing.
Go figure, a good queen, after she gets started can lay over 1000 eggs in a day.
If the cells are clean and ready she doesn't run here there and yonder scattering the eggs.
Why should she?

On the other hand if the house keepers are not doing their job,"not cleaning" the cells to her liking she "will" skip the "Not" ready cells. Remember, cleaning cells is part of hygienic behavior.
Hard to tell, but if this is the case then you need to re queen any how if the queen is producing poor Behavioral bees.

No matter how many eggs she can lay, if she is producing inferior bees, in any sense she needs to go.
Hope this is understood.
doak

[Kathyp]

in my case, it was one of my swarm queens.  she may have gotten off to a rocky start.  she is great now.  i suspect that the frame i pulled was one of the first she started laying on.  it was on drawn comb from another hive.  it may not have been clean.  she put eggs where she could and then went back as space allowed.  this hive is also putting away lots of honey. 

[Frantz]

Kathy,
That is funny, I was just looking at that site the other night getting additional ideas for the OB hives. That looks pretty solid with the brackets to the wall and all. How are they excluding the queen for the upper frame to be a honey frame? Does yours have the same feature. With a two frame its not going to happen but a 5 frame should have a honey frame on top for sure. I just wondered how they were excluding her. Have to think about that one.
Let me know
Thanks Kathy
F

[Kathyp]

no excluder.  she'll lay where she wants to lay, i guess.  that's ok with me.  with the ability to feed syrup, it should not be an issue if they don't put much away.

BTW....i now have 5 queen cells!  :-D

[Frantz]

Wait till you get one of those hatched and you hear her pip for the first time. It is very cool.

[indypartridge]

The best way to read a "spotty" pattern is when you can find a frame that has all brood approx. the same age, say half way to capping.

I think that's a good observation, doak. Once capped, what looks "spotty" can be due to a number of different reasons. Some hygenic bees can detect mites and/or disease within capped cells, and remove them, giving the appearance of a spotty brood pattern. You certainly don't want to blame the queen if the bees are in reality doing a good job of fighting off mites & disease.