How to tell age of capped brood?

[B. Haning]

Is there an easy way to tell the age of capped worker brood? I want to add some older brood to nucs to boost their population. Seems like I read eye color of the capped brood was an indicator of age. What should I look for?

[dug_6238]

Other than maybe the capping turning just a slight slight bit darker, I don't think that you can. At least if you can, I'd be interesting in knowing too, but I'm pretty sure that you can't tell from the outside.

Would love to hear though if I'm wrong.

[aszalan]

This figure shows the eye and cuticle coloration of pupae as it is related to age.
note the time is time after hatching of the larva, so add 4-5 days for time after the egg is laid.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...evelopment.jpg

[B. Haning]

Thanks Aszalan. So I can uncap a few brood cells and look for darker pupae with dark brown eyes to find workers that are about to emerge.

[dug_6238]

My mistake, didn't read as closely as I should have - I see better what you're doing now. My bad... Do note though that what this really gives you is a range of ages across that frame, not the age of all the brood. Ages across the entire frame will vary pretty widely, as you'll see if you uncap various locations on that frame.