Drone or worker brood?

[RichardK]

I have a hive which has kicked off really slowly this season (I'm someway south of most of you in France near the Spanish border). Whereas other hives are now on their 5th frame of brood this one if just completing its first. Some capped brood, mainly eggs and larvae though - come the weekend most of it will be capped which may make it easier for me to tell what's going on. There is a queen in the hive although at some point between November and now I think the old queen was superseded as there are 3 old queen cells on a couple of frames. Due to the slow start (here anyhow), I'm wondering if the queen 'has a problem' - maybe she never got mated for example.

Looking at the following, would you say this is worker or drone brood?

 

[mike99]

I have a hive which has kicked off really slowly this season (I'm someway south of most of you in France near the Spanish border). Whereas other hives are now on their 5th frame of brood this one if just completing its first. Some capped brood, mainly eggs and larvae though - come the weekend most of it will be capped which may make it easier for me to tell what's going on. There is a queen in the hive although at some point between November and now I think the old queen was superseded as there are 3 old queen cells on a couple of frames. Due to the slow start (here anyhow), I'm wondering if the queen 'has a problem' - maybe she never got mated for example.

Looking at the following, would you say this is worker or drone brood?

Hi Richard. I am still a novice but those pictures look like worker brood to me. Drone brood has a much higher relief IMHO
By the way. I absolutely love your location.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Worker brood, you will see if she is a drone layer, centre brood frames will be patchy worker with drone brood in between.
You should see over the next week time will tell.

 

[RichardK]

Worker brood, you will see if she is a drone layer, centre brood frames will be patchy worker with drone brood in between.
You should see over the next week time will tell.

Thanks for that. She's just so slow.....driving me crazy! I'll see how the pattern progresses.

 

[RichardK]

Hi Richard. I am still a novice but those pictures look like worker brood to me. Drone brood has a much higher relief IMHO
By the way. I absolutely love your location.

I thought the same as you, however as she's been so slow to get moving i'm looking for reasons....paranoid i think!

We love our location too .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

All worker brood (although you can't tell anything from eggs)

 

[RichardK]

All worker brood (although you can't tell anything from eggs)

Thanks for that. The egg pic was really because I liked it! It also shows pattern too in that the queen is laying up sections at a time rather than 1 here and there.

 

[Bazzer]

[QUO

I thought the same as you, however as she's been so slow to get moving i'm looking for reasons....paranoid i think!

We love our location too ♥.

If she is a young queen then it makes sense she is taking a little more time to get going. Also it is likely that if the previous queen died then the population of nurse bees will be quite low which also leads to a slower build up. You could add in a frame of emerging brood from one of your other colonies to give her a boost.

 

[RichardK]

[QUO

If she is a young queen then it makes sense she is taking a little more time to get going. Also it is likely that if the previous queen died then the population of nurse bees will be quite low which also leads to a slower build up. You could add in a frame of emerging brood from one of your other colonies to give her a boost.

Good thinking! I'll give that a go.