Should I be worried?

[patl]

Ok, today was the first real inspection since last autumn and our first overwintered hive, so we weren't really sure what to expect. The bees looked happy enough even though there doesn't seem to be much brood, maybe the queen hasn't ade it through the winter in as good a shape as the hive as a whole. What we saw quite a lot of though (2-3 frames) was in the attached picture, I'm really not sure whether I'm just looking at crystallised stores or something more worrying. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Pat.

 

[Polyanwood]

That looks like mostly rather ropey stores. No healthy brood. There is one cell that looks a bit like EFB. Can you do us another photo of open and sealed brood?
Sorry.

 

[enrico]

IMHO crystallised stores, nothing to worry about. Be inclined to remove them later in year if not used by bees.
E

 

[patl]

Thanks for the superfast response. I know the cell you mean. To be honest, I really didn't notice anything that looked like a larva when I looked at the frame itself, only when I brought up the photo, so I'm hoping its a trick of the light, rather than efb. The 2 brood frames looked a bit patchy but reasonable otherwise. The frame in the previous photo was probably one or two frames away from the brood. Interestingly there were 2 fresh frames of sealed stores at the very edge of the hive separated from the brood ball by a clear undrawn frame.

 

[tonybloke]

nice looking queen, and eggs in some cells, I'd say now't to worry about

 

[VEG]

They look fine

 

[jimthebee]

cheers pat, sounds like they are okay? maybe the queen just isnt working hard enough