Bee Knowledgeable Answers: Bee Brood

1) In one of the pictures below, can you find eggs, larva and capped over brood?

Look closely, the eggs look like tiny grains of rice placed deep in the cells. The larvae take up more room in the cells as they have grown much larger. They look like a short worm or grub curled up inside their cells.

Here is a close-up image of brood cells. See the eggs on the right side of the comb and larvae on the left side of the comb?

photo: Waugsberg

Capped over brood are easier to spot. Look in the photos above for the brood cells with opaque covers or caps. The larvae have grown and are ready to pupate into young bees. As the larva turns to pupa, the nurse bees cap over the brood cell with a wax covering.

2) Can you spot the queen bee?

The queen can be identified in the photos by her size and shape. Also by the green dot that has been placed by a beekeeper on her thorax. Notice the queen’s larger size and slender shape compared to all the other bees in the photos.

3) What do honeybees feed to the young larva?

Worker bees assigned to care for the brood are called nurse bees. They feed the newly hatched eggs a very special food called royal jelly, a substance secreted by glands located on the heads of the nurse bees. Then the nurse bees switch the larvae diet to a protein-rich mixture of pollen and nectar or diluted honey known as beebread. If they feed a larva an exclusive diet of royal jelly, the larva will develop into a queen.