Brood Comb – Photos
It’s warming up here in the UK with the temperatures pushing an unseasonal 19C. I am sure many beekeepers have had the excitement of their first inspection of the year. I even managed to find the queen that evaded me last year and marked her for good measure.
It is vital to be able to read the comb and understand what healthy comb and diseased comb looks like. Below are some photos and descriptions. At the end of the page are some links with further information.
Please email me any other photos you would like published on this page.
Healthy Brood Comb With Capped Worker Brood
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
This is what we like to see. Many of the uncapped cells you can see are following the lines of the wire that strengthens the foundation.
Healthy Brood Comb With Eggs In Cells
- Bee Eggs & Larvae In Cells
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Healthy: Single egg in centre of cell, eggs in every cell
- To spot eggs have your back to the sun and tilt the frame
Brood Comb With Multiple Eggs In Cells
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Cells with multiple eggs or eggs at side of cell or spotted pattern of egg laying means you have a poor/old queen, drone laying queen or laying workers. Laying workers eggs are unfertilised and develop into drones; the signs are similar to those of the drone-laying queen, except that the brood pattern is often less compact. Also there will be multiple eggs present in some cells, often on the side walls as well as at the bottom of the cell.
- Treatment: Older queens or queens running out of sperm – re-queen. Laying worker colonies are best destroyed.
Healthy Brood Frame With Eggs & Pollen
Super Frame With Capped Honey
Capped Drone Brood
- This was drone comb created below a standard brood frame which I then culled as part of varroa management. Drone brood is slightly wider and stands out more than worker brood.
Brood Comb With American Foul Brood (AFB)
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Bacterial disease
- I find it helpful to remember that A in AFB is for “After” and E in EFB is for “Early”. “After” because the signs are visible after the comb is capped.
- Signs of AFB: cappings sunken, perforated, might look wet; spotted brood pattern; foul smell. Insert a matchstick into a suspect capped cell and it comes out a ropey, gooey mass
Brood Comb With European Foulbrood (EFB)
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Bacterial disease
- Larvae die before they are capped (unlike AFB which die after capping)
- Signs of EFB: twisted larvae in base of cells, larvae light brown colour, sunken cappings, a our smell (but not as foul as AFB)
- Matchstick test does not work
Chalk Brood
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Fungal disease
Wax Moth Damaged Comb
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
Deformed Wing Virus
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
Damaged Comb Due To Varroa Mites
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
Varroa Mites On Honeybees
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
Nosema
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Protozoan disease affects intestinal tracts like dysentery in humans.
- Signs: slow build up in spring, bees aimless in front of hive, dysentery inside and outside hive
- You can only be sure you have Nosema is by identifying the spores under a microscope. Read more at my recent post Nosema – Advice Required.
Bald Brood
Source: BeeBase, Crown Copyright
- Signs: small patches of normally developing larvae with uncapped or partially capped cells.
Read More
- Bee Hygiene: Gives more detail on honeybee diseases, including some PDF downloads from NBU and how to avoid spreading disease from hive to hive
- Varroa Management Guide
- Catch up on events in My Apiary – it’s been a disastrous winter – but I’ve learnt a lot
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Nice work! I need a how to guide on marking queens. Still to successfully debut on that front as don’t have enough hands. Better skill with lighting the smoker (egg boxes). First inspected also which was great and now feeding a light syrup. Also put out a bait hive with a lure…another idea for a blog!
I know your colonies were aggressive last year. How were they when you inspected?
How strong are your hives looking? My one remaining colony looked quite weak … 4 partial frames of bees in the middle of the day. I’m really unhappy about how it’s gone this winter.
Let us know if the bait hive is successful.
Glad to hear your bees are doing well. Just a note of caution about feeding syrup. In my area (Sussex) there is now lots of fresh nectar coming in. You can see this quite easily in the comb. If you feed syrup as well you run the risk that the bees will just fill up all the available space in the comb with it leaving not enough space for the queen to lay. The result will be a swarm and very little chance of the new queen getting mated successfully, as there will be few drones about.
Best of luck.
Thanks. They have plenty of space and the stores that I gave them last Autumn … just a shortage of bees in the hive. Is four frames enough at this time of the year?
Awesome pics…thanks for the info….good luck with the bees this year.
Hives pretty calm. Fondant consumed. No sign of queens but eggs and larvae. One had started laying in the super so I’ve put on queen excluder and will have to sort that out! Bees very interested in the bait hive. Hopefully they’ll swarm there! Lovely fresh yellow pollen going in.
Great Pictures Roger and so helpful! Like lots of folk I have been eagerly awaiting my first opening! It was to be midday yesterday when the temperature should have been right. Just as I was going to get my suit on a thick sea fog came rolling in dropping the ambient temperature by at least 10 degrees. Frustrating to say the least.
Bearing in mind my previous problems with apparent dysentry (I haven’t had a chance to look in to see what the cause might be) I was toying with the idea of performing a shook swarm to change the comb. I have read elsewhere people who do this as a matter of course every season as a form of varroa control. Apparently the numbers build up just as well.
As I am not entirely in this for the honey but also for the sake of the bees ,I would appreciate your thoughts
Hi Jessica, Here is a novice/improver’s thoughts. You have a few options. (A) In the first instance you might want to find a beekeeper with a microscope to see if he can identify any Nosema spores? If no spores – go to option B and if there are spores go to option C. (B) Leave it. The bees might be healthy and the dysentery might have just been normal rather than a sign of Nosema. (C) If it is Nosema, the advice is undertake a shook swarm or Bailey Comb Change – and see Nosema – Advice Required for more info.
Hi Roger! Managed to have a look inside today at last. No signs of dysentry on the combs or frame parts. And certainly there hasn’t been any additional deposits since I first saw it.Perhaps I have got away with it and it was post winter poops?
The frames were teaming with bees and I even saw the queen who was unexpectedly on the first,outermost frame I removed. Let’s hope I didn’t squish her in my rush to put it all back together. There seems to be plenty of pollen and honey. This is all too good to be true with my track record but I’ll take what I can get!
The other hive with my lovely sweet natured Wunderqueen is going gangbusters too. I have actually put supers on already as there is little extra space in either. Something is bound to go wrong.
I have ordered a new queen to replace the lovely one as this will be her third season- although reading you had a five year old makes me wonder if I should alter my plans!
Have you ever heard of using clove oil to rub on your hands to repel the bees as you work with them?
It appears as if my colony absconded. In inspecting the hive, much of the comb is purple in color, very different from fresh comb or the dark brood comb. It also looks as if it has been lightly “frosted”.
Is this a sign of something bad? If so, what.
BTW, if you can’t tell, I’m a novice.