Too much brood???

[Tara]

Is this possible?

I got an okay 5 medium-frame nuc on June 6 (very little capped brood, but a lot of open brood) with a Russian queen. The beek didn't cage them in the previous night, and didn't want me to come in the evening, so I probably lost a good deal of the field workers.

I did my first inspection on June 11, saw a lot of capped brood, and very few (if any) empty cells. There was brood or eggs everywhere I looked, and the bees had only drawn part of one side of a frame and part of one side of another frame from the 5 frames of wax foundation I gave them. There was a tiny amount of capped/open nectar in the very corners of the frames (maybe 10% of the frame)

On June 13 I recieved a couple frames of empty drawn comb from a local beek--the comb had been damaged previously by wax moths or other things, but there looked to be good bits of it (1/2 or better) that we figured the queen could lay in while the bees repaired the holes from before and pulled new comb. I replaced the untouched foundation in the box with the damaged-but-partially-usable comb.

Had an issue with my hive-top feeder on Tuesday (June 15) and had to open up the hive, and figured while I was there I'd check the new frames. Pulled one out at random and spotted the queen, and saw a lot more eggs. Eggs, eggs, eggs in all the usable comb (probably about 2-1/2 medium frames)

Question... is there such thing as too much brood for the nurse bees to handle? Queen is a Russian, and I heard they concentrate their egg laying more than Italians (2,000 a day is normal), and she just filled up several frames with eggs in about 48 hours. We're nearing the end of our usual nectar flow but there's still plenty of flowers out and I'm feeding 1:1 syrup. For lack of a better way, I estimate my hive strength by counting incoming bees, and the other day around 5pm they averaged 27/min.

Is this situation normal? Should I do anything about it? I've considered feeding them pollen patties... if so, what should I use? Pollen supplement, or pollen substitute? Any favored brands? (I'm sure there's a million threads on patties, but I couldn't find "the one" I needed...)

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Beeslave]

If there is pollen coming in on the bees and the weather is decent I wouldn't worry about pollen patties but they could help. The queen will lay as many eggs as there is bees to take care of(until she is maxxed out) and keep the temp controlled.

[Mike S]

Sounds like your going to have a good brood hatch when the day comes, sounds like its going to be a strong hive! I would leave them alone, keep feeding and let them work.

[honeybeekeeper]

Atleast she is laying eggs and laying them in every cup! Most of the time they are here and there or arent laying at all period or a new queen will lay so many eggs that she forgets to put them in the cup! Sounds like your gonna have alot of bees soon! Keep feeding & Good Luck!!

[victory1504]

Tara, bees are wild animals. They do not require intensive care. They will not lay too much brood, especially in June ( possibly in October ).
You don't need to feed syrup or pollen at all, unless there is no honey/nectar in the combs. Very unlikely in June.
Chances are that you will find they have removed big holes in the damaged drawn comb. They will likely fill it with drone comb. Work it to the "outside" ( frames 1, or 10 ). They will fill it with pollen and honey. They need some drone comb. They will make it somewhere else if you take it away from them.
If they are getting the "itch" to swarm they will empty that drone comb fast and fill it with drone brood.

[sqkcrk]

Tara, bees are wild animals. They do not require intensive care.

Afterreading Tara's op I thought, "Leave them alone a little already. You don't need to bother them that much,"

I appreciate your curiousity and concern that they may not be doing what you expect them to or that you might not be doing all you can for them. But like Victory writes they're wild animals and don't need intensive care.

"Bees make better beekeepers then beekeepers make bees." Michael Palmer, VT

It also appears as though you have a couple of mentors. Do you ever go into their hives w/ them? And, unless you picked your nuc up after the bees were flying that day, you didn't loose your field force. And that is not really that much of a problem because field bees are always coming to maturity to replace those that don't come back.

Enjoy your bees. Let them bee.