Frame Guide › Management
Fall Brood Nest: what it looks like on the frame
Early October · a strong colony, the goldenrod flow just ended.
A small, tight patch of brood wrapped in capped honey. In May that would be congestion, but in October it's the colony doing exactly the right thing: raising fewer, longer-lived winter bees and packing stores right where the cluster will sit.
Leave the stores alone and do a mite wash
Opening up the nest now would be exactly wrong — that honey is their winter. The useful fall job is checking mites: winter bees raised on mite-infested brood don't live to spring.
Easy to mistake for
- Honey-Bound Brood NestStrong flow on. Bees crowding, and the queen seems to have nowhere to go.
- Pollen-Bound Brood NestA heavy pollen flow on, and a small colony that isn't growing.
Could you spot this with the lid off?
Read the Frame deals you 8 random frames. Say what you see, say what you'd do, and find out why. It's free and runs on your phone.
Drill management → Mixed round (all 32 frames) →More management
- Honey-Bound Brood NestStrong flow on. Bees crowding, and the queen seems to have nowhere to go.
- Starved ColonyLate March · they were flying in December. Now, silence.
- Normal Drone CombMay · the bottom edge of a frame from a strong, healthy hive.
- Pollen-Bound Brood NestA heavy pollen flow on, and a small colony that isn't growing.
- New Colony Drawing CombTwo weeks after you installed a package on fresh foundation.
- Uncapped Honey SuperLate June · a super frame, heavy in your hand. You're thinking about pulling honey.
- Moldy CombSpring · frames from a hive that died in January, left in the damp box since.
These frames are drawn to teach the pattern, and real frames vary. From The Alleman Apiary in Middletown, PA.