Reason for poor brood pattern?

[mswartfager]

Have only one hive.  Queen looks okay, brood area is about 6"x8" in the middle of a couple frames, but there is no solid brood pattern.  It's so sporadic that practically no capped brood cells are connected. 

Advice?

[iddee]

Are the adjoining frames mostly pollen. If so, move them out and put empty drawn comb in their place.

[riverrat]

you dont mention how strong of a hive you have there is several reasons for a spotty brood pattern can you give us more information

[Ollie]

Poor brood pattern,... poor queen.

[Jim134]

Poor brood pattern,... poor queen.

   May be new queen just starting out  :roll:

I need more information



                     BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)

[Kathyp]

also might have had a massive hatching out.  did you look closely at the empty cells to see if there were eggs in there again?  in a new hive, the queen will lay a lot of eggs all at once and they will pretty hatch out all at once...with in a day or so of each other.  the queen will go back and refill those cells.  you can have what looks like a poor brood pattern, but if you look very closely, you'll  see that the cells are refilled.

if you find that she is not refilling, then you have a problem.

did you check closely around that brood and on other frames to make sure she is continually laying.  you may have very small larvae or eggs elsewhere that you missed.

[mswartfager]

This hive seems pretty strong.  It made it through the winter and I've seen no signs of anything that I recognize as unhealthy.  The brood area (w/out the nice brood pattern) is on the middle frames in the middle of the hive.  I think I have gotten pretty skilled at looking for and finding eggs.  The queen seems to be continuing to lay, but in random places and I've not found any eggs in any place other than the established brood area.  I also did notice what looked like a recently opened queen cell on the bottom of a frame.  It still had a lot of something that looked like a pearly, white creamy substance in it. 

[riverrat]

sounds to me like you have had a swarm and the new queen is just starting to lay

[iddee]

You didn't answer about the pollen frames. If they are there, they act as a wall for the queen and she will not cross them. Move the pollen to the outside and she can start laying again.

[Paynesgrey]

What is the pearly white stuff in the queen cell? We destroyed one like that, (after we saw the queen, in a hive with good pattern)? Smushed queen larva?

[riverrat]

What is the pearly white stuff in the queen cell? We destroyed one like that, (after we saw the queen, in a hive with good pattern)? Smushed queen larva?

royal jelly

[mswartfager]

The tip of the queen cell looked chewed open and that's what I guessed the stuff was...royal jelly. 

I never noticed any particular pattern or frames filled with mostly pollen.