opened the hive today...some help

Some words of wisdom that may benefit every new beekeeper.

from "The How-To-Do-It book of Beekeeping" by Richard Taylor:

" 25. How to preserve the integrity of the brood nest

The brood nest of a normal beehive has a definite and uniform pattern. The queen begins her egg laying more or less at the center of a comb, more or less at the center of the hive, and works out from there.Thus (as it progresses) one finds a pattern of sealed brood, surrounded by larvae, surrounded by smaller larvae and eggs. Eventually, as the larvae develop, the entire comb, or most of it, comes to consist of sealed brood.Then as brood at the center emerges, the queen again deposits the eggs there. Above and around this brood nest, one finds, first, pollen, then honey. The outermost combs in a hive contain only honey, sometimes pollen and rarely brood. The pollen is what is needed first, to feed the larvae, and then as winter approaches and brood rearing ceases (declines), the honey will be used; so both are appropriately placed."

(If you want to inspect and assess any colony, this is what you should see.)


"This general pattern should be preserved, unless there is good reason for doing otherwise. Thus you should never spread brood out, alternating combs or empty combs (frames) of foundation, thinking that this will cause the bees and queen to redouble their efforts to fill the empty combs. It only demoralizes them, and puts them behind."

Brood. Google is your best friend.

Capped brood and larvae

Eggs in comb

Now that you have your bees, probably time to learn about them. I think it's perfectly fine to have bee's without being an expert.

Capped Brood in Center, Capped Honey on Top Corners

tomkat said:

I thought about it and went for a walk.
I never mean to be rude, but really why do people get into something they know little about. Beekeeping is not just Honey and stings.
It is knowing what your doing and learning as you go in some cases it just not what your should do with bees. At least learn something about them before you dive into it.
Again I do not mean to be rude, but I could not let it ride.

Click to expand...

Shrug... Perhaps you should have. :no: There's really only one way to do this, and that's to do it. You can't learn about swimming by reading a book. And, even though you try to do the right thing in all cases, it's really the bees that are doing everything.

There's a strong and natural human tendency to want to see everything. "I want to see the Queen to know that she's in there," etc. We're excited, we're "stoked," and we want to manage them. Which is understandable, but not necessarily good. Fact is, a hive will naturally establish its own natural rhythms and structure. If you briefly look into the hive and simply see a large mass of bees inside who appear to be doing the bee-thing, that's most likely to be exactly what they are doing. (Which means that Her Majesty is holding Court even if you do not see her doing so.) And, you might well have been able to deduce all of this, simply by looking at the hives several times a day so as to establish a sense of what's "normal" for it. When a beehive becomes stressed or diseased, its external behavior immediately and visibly changes. "You can learn a lot by watching."

I think this is what Ross is talking about. Two frames, both brown colored. Very confusing to a new beekeeper. One looks like brood is supposed to look like and the other I am guessing is honey based on the flatness and the waxy look -please correct me if I am wrong. I have differing opinions as to if the pic on the left is brood or capped honey. It is easy for the trained eye and a little bit more difficult for the untrained eye. It takes a bit of time to get all of this knowledge working for us new guys. These two pics are a good example of a new beekeeper not having the knowledge to discern routine things a seasoned beekeeper would know.

I do happen to have a local mentor and two other new guys to talk with about things everyday. It helps. I looked at all the google pics out there, but it is hard to tell sometimes just what you are looking at until someone explains it. As far as the queen goes, I opened my hives yesterday and decided I was going to find her. Did not use smoke and started with the brood frame. Finally found her on the next frame. Mr. Bush said sometimes they run and sure enough, she was the fastest on the frame. If I took my eye off of her she was already on the other end and other side in a second. The point is... I made up my mind to find her and went in with attitude that it was going to happen.


It's kind of like turkey hunting. You can read all about it and be a doctorate in literature on the subject. But if you haven't gone in and learned hands on, my bet is on the 5 year old you are taking with you that morning.