Frame Guide › Queen problems
Healthy Brood Pattern: what it looks like on the frame
June · a strong colony, bees calm and covering the comb.
WHAT YOU'RE SEEING
Wall-to-wall capped worker brood, an arc of honey up top, a band of pollen, and single eggs standing in the cell bottoms. A good laying queen made this — and you even found her (circled).
WHAT TO DO
Note the good pattern and close up
Nothing to fix. A healthy hive doesn't need saving — over-manipulating it does more harm than good. Record the pattern and move on.
Easy to mistake for
- Laying WorkerA colony that's been loud and 'roary' for weeks. No calm hum.
- Drone-Laying QueenQueen is present, but the brood looks bumpy and raised all over.
- ChalkbroodCool, wet spring. You spot chalky white bits on the landing board.
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 queen problems → Mixed round (all 32 frames) →More queen problems
- Laying WorkerA colony that's been loud and 'roary' for weeks. No calm hum.
- Swarm CellsEarly May · booming population, bees boiling out the front.
- Supersedure CellsNothing dramatic. The pattern has just gotten patchy lately.
- Drone-Laying QueenQueen is present, but the brood looks bumpy and raised all over.
- Emergency Queen CellsYou rolled the queen ten days ago. This is the same colony now.
- Can't Find the QueenYou went through every frame twice and never saw the queen.
- New Queen Laying Double EggsThe queen you introduced started laying five days ago.
- Waiting on a Virgin QueenThis colony swarmed 16 days ago. No eggs, no larvae anywhere.
- Empty Queen CupsMid-April · the colony is building fast. Along the bottom bars you find these.
These frames are drawn to teach the pattern, and real frames vary. From The Alleman Apiary in Middletown, PA.