Bee brood

In beekeeping, bee brood or brood refers to the eggs, larvae and pupae of honeybees. The brood of Western honey bees develops within a bee hive. In man-made, removable frame hives, such as Langstroth hives, each frame which is mainly occupied by brood is called a brood frame. Brood frames usually have some pollen and nectar or honey in the upper corners of the frame. The rest of the brood frame cells may be empty or occupied by brood in various developmental stages. During the brood raising season, the bees may reuse the cells from which brood has emerged for additional brood or convert it to honey or pollen storage. Bees show remarkable flexibility in adapting cells to a use best suited for the hive's survival. In modern removable frame hives the nursery area is in the brood chamber, which beekeepers prefer to be in the bottom box. In the late winter and early spring as the brood cycle begins, the queen starts to lay eggs within the winter cluster in proximity to available honey stores. Honey bees tend to greatly expand the brood chamber as the season progresses. The relative location of the brood chamber within the beehive may also change as bee keepers add more boxes or as wild bees build fresh comb into available cavities. Some beekeepers ensure that the queen will not go into the upper boxes (called supers or honey supers) by placing a screen called a queen excluder between the boxes. The screen has precisely measured open spaces through which a worker bee can pass, but not a queen. Some beekeepers do not use excluders, but try to keep the queen within the intended brood area by keeping a honey barrier of capped honey, which the queen is reluctant to cross, above the brood. In feral hives the honey bees tend to put the brood at bottom center of the cavity, and honey to the sides and above the brood, so beekeepers are trying to follow the natural tendency of the bees. In the mid to late spring, just before a bee hive would naturally split by swarming, beekeepers often remove frames of brood, with adhering bees, to make up new starter hives, called "nucs" or nucleus colonies.