How many cells on a National Brood frame?

[nickyjay]

Did my first weekly inspection of the new hive today installed from package last week.
I did not find the queen as it was not that warm and did not want to keep the hive open for long. They have However drawn 3 full frames of comb and are well underway with 4 and 5. After my eyes adjusted, I started to see loads of what looked liked 3 day old eggs (grains of rice) filling most of the the 3 frames. Satisfied that the queen was laying, I reassembled the hive and scraped off the brace comb they had built going up into the top feeder. They didn't seem to like that bit!

Although I have seen the foragers bring plenty of pollen in, I could only see what appeared to be a few cells with a "smearing" of pollen paste at the bottom. What have they been doing with it all?!

Also, due to the fact that the existing bees will be dying off before the new brood starts to hatch, I wanted to know how many cells were on a national
frame to try and understand the rate in which the population will grow once the new bees start to hatch.
N

 

[huntsman666]

Five worker cells per inch so 25 per square inch. Both sides = 50 per square inch for any frame type.

Deduct what you think is reasonable for stores and you'll have a reasonable answer per most active frame.

Also, think of the brood being in the shape of a rugby ball and this complicates matters further.

Don't worry about workers dying off. The generally accepted three week life for a house worker varies according to the needs of the colony.

 

[nickyjay]

Thanks for the info. Very useful. Got 5 frames pretty much full of capped brood now. Should start to see new offspring within the week.

 

[Poly Hive]

New offspring next week from a package housed last week?

3 days an egg, 5 as larvae, 13 days under the cappings = 21 days.

Patience...lol

PH

 

[nickyjay]

Post is old! Just a delayed reply to huntsman bought it back up.
Colony is nearly 3 weeks old now and seems to be doing well. The capped brood is in solid ovals on almost all 5 frames with eggs and larvae in the rest.