at what stage do bees cap the brood cells?There is no caped brood in my hive.The hive is 3 years old and has lots of bees but no caped brood.Theres a lot i need to learn about bee keeping.I want to do a better job of caring for them now that I have more time to do so.should I buy a new mated queen or wait,or do something else?Any advise is appreciated.Thanks.
Hi Stephen and welcome. If there’s a healthy, mated queen there should be capped brood as well as open brood - what we call BIAS, or ‘brood in all stages’ - mostly concentrated in the center frames of your brood box(es).
To answer your question about the timing of capping, diagram of the three types of colony members’ development:
So, at this time of year in Kentucky where you are, you definitely should be seeing capped brood. Any chance you can send some pictures?
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