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i inspected a colony yesterday that is a combination of two small swarms caught a few weeks ago. both swarms were with virgin queens and one of them ended up queenless so i combined. i didn't find the queen, but there was a decent pattern of eggs, larvae, and already some capped brood.

the uncapped larvae looked a little funny as it had a pinkish color to it. the other odd thing was that the just hatched eggs didn't have much jelly.

there is a whole lot of honey and pollen in that hive, and we are in a strong flow right now.

any thoughts?

 

[JRG13]

Only thing I can think of, is you have a lot of young brood at the same time and they might be stretching to keep them all fed, or your pollen source is lacking some essential amino acids or other nutrients to produce proper amounts of royal jelly.

 

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thanks jrg. after thinking about some more, i think the brood in question may have gotten overheated/dry.

it was in the upper box during a 48 hour newspaper combine. no water was available to that upper box and the ventilation was likely not good enough.

they're acting right today, lots of pollen and nectar coming in, i'll check them in another week.