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Queen laying patern

1K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  crofter 
#1 ·
I bought my first bees three weeks ago. I am trying to evaluate the effectiveness of my queen, but as a newbie it is a bit hard to do that, can anybody comment on the attached images? One has a good pattern. But the others has many empty cells. Is this normal?
 

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#2 ·
What you see is normal, the open areas are where bees have emerged. The queen should be re-laying in those areas. The pictures of solid frames of brood often seen are where the queen is filling empty frames in a day or two so most of the larvae are within a couple days of each other so will be capped during the same time period.
 
#4 ·
While they were almost certainly not laid on the same day, if that was the case, then yes, they would all emerge at almost the same time, probably down to the hour. The reason behind this is that insect development rate is most determined by temperature. Since bees can keep the brood nest at nearly the exact same temperature plus or minus less than a single degree F, the developmental process is almost exactly the same for every bee in the colony.
 
#7 ·
Is it normal to have many pollen cells within the caped cells?

View attachment 56751
Short answer yes. Over wintered colonies can get into a haphazard pattern due to areas of pollen and crystallized honey. In cold climates the first brood patches will be small till there is enough bees to cover. Brood patches can be separated from each other. Unless there is some reset a fragmented disorganized pattern seems to persist. The queen has to jog around looking for holes to fill. Not very efficient compared to repeating spirals in adjacent cells. Kind of like one finger typing!

Back in the day, defragmenting your hard drive was routine maintenance to keep your computer up to speed.

There is a fair bit of art and skill in keeping a well organized colony. I admit most of mine are rather higgledy piggledy unless new comb gets drawn out when the flow is strong.
 
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