How to Identify a Bee Brood

A bee brood refers to the egg, larva and pupa stages in the life of bees. In late Winter and early Spring the queen bee lays the eggs in clusters inside of the hive. As the season progresses the brood will expand in size and other broods might be made throughout the hive.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Check for circular patterns of filled in cells on the honeycomb. Each egg is laid into it's own cell on the honeycomb. As the eggs mature they will fill the cells of the comb and stick out from the top. The queen bee tends to lay her eggs in circular patterns.

2. Look for a jelly inside the cells of the honeycomb. As the eggs hatch the worker bees add royal jelly to the cells for the larvae to feed on. Royal jelly is a jelly that is secreted from glands on young bees heads. The larvae is fed royal jelly for three days and then fed nectar and diluted honey.

3. Start at the bottom of the hive when looking for a bee brood. Most queen bees tend to begin building their brood in the lower portion of the hive. As the brood grows she may expand upwards.

4. Concentrate on areas close to honey storage. The queen bee will usually lay her brood close to a source of honey. Typically you will find the brood in the middle and storage of honey in all corners and around the sides of the brood.

[zozzie]

on 11/30/2009 I have to correct you on point 2. Royal jelly is only used in queen cells- like supercedure cells, or swarm cells. All larvae you see in the comb will be fed on honey/nectar.

I also feel as though anyone with a beehive, and the knowledge to keep them will know how to locate a bee brood, it's not always "close to the honey- as in most beehives, the honey is on both sides of the brood, and expanded outwards. My advice would be to look down between the frames at the middle of where the foundation has been drawn into comb.