Brood box inspecting yesterday, one week after formic pro treatment. I could see lava, no eggs, no queen. I have a shotgun patten with some of my brood frames and two full frames of capped honey either side of the brood. It looks like they also maybe backfilling. Lots of pollen and nectar visible.
I plan to do another inspection to check out the rest of the brood frames and take more photos for analysis. What should I do to help rectify this backfilling and brood patten.
Hi Catty, welcome to the forum. That brood looks like drone brood. Is it in drone comb, or worker comb? If it’s in worker comb, with no other worker brood in the hive at all, that would indicate to me that you have a laying worker.
Now that we’re past the solstice, the bees will start to open the brood up, instead of back filling. This is with normal colonies with a good population & a vigorous queen.
When you take more photos to share, can you get some close-ups for us please. cheers
Thanks JeffH. I’m wanting to check the hive again Saturday. That would only be 6 days after last inspection. Do you feel I should wait longer? I was also going to checkerboard with 1, possibly 2 news drama to help with the backfilling. Your thoughts?
Below is a comparison photo. Top was April.
Hi Catty, that’s all beautiful worker brood. Definitely don’t checkerboard your brood while the nights are so cold. Keep your brood together so that the colony can easily keep it warm.
Don’t do any inspections if it is cold and windy, you don’t want to chill your brood unnecessarily.
Don’t give the back filling a second thought. When the colony is ready in the next few weeks, you’ll start to see a reverse of back filling. The days are getting longer with an increase in pollen will be the trigger.
That top photo was April (nice brood pattern) and bottom frame was the pattern from the weekend. Should I pop in and check some more brood frames see if they all look like that or let the girls handle it?
Hey Catty,
FormicPro is pretty harsh and can disrupt the colony. The Queen pheromone can be overpowered by the strong fumes. This can lead to Queen failure and if there’s no young larvae to make a new queen, the colony will collapse. The Queen might still be there, but not laying yet. You need to find her or replace her.
Mike
