[RUn]

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?

 

[John Davis]

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.

 

[RUn]

Lets say the eggs were laid on the same day. Will the bees emerge on the same day or there could be some variations plus/minus a day?

 

[Akademee]

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.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

In addition to previous posts, with which I agree, it can sometimes take a new queen some time to get into her groove. From the pics, I think you are okay. I would also recommend to look into those empty cells and see if there are eggs or larvae in any of them. If so, even better.

Ryan

 

[RUn]

Is it normal to have many pollen cells within the caped cells?

 

[crofter]

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.