Bald brood is a glaring indicator that something may be amiss in a colony. Many different things can cause bald brood, including infestation with pests like wax moths (as evidenced in the first photo) and small hive beetles.

When wax moth larvae move through the brood comb looking for food, they sometimes move just below brood comb cappings. Worker bees can detect the larval  passage and uncap those affected cells, creating a characteristic squiggly line tracing the wax moth's route. While not a cause for alarm, this sign does suggest the colony may be weak. If you see something like this on one of your frames, try gently tapping the frame with your hive tool and see if one of the little buggers pops out!

In the case depicted in the image below, however, the likely culprits are the bees themselves.

One way bees are able to fend off disease is through hygienic behavior. This involves bees sensing diseased or dead pupa under the cappings, uncapping the suspect cells, and removing the contents. In this picture, you can see many pupal bees exposed where the cappings have been removed. Also visible are several brood areas where both the cappings and the pupa missing, after the pupa have been removed or cannibalized. While various diseases can cause this behavior, in this case, we think it was a result of cold weather (chilled brood). During a cold snap, the population of adult bees in this colony was not large enough to cover all the brood the colony had produced. So, we suspect, after a cold night, the bees clustered but were unable to cover all the brood in the colony to keep them warm. As a result, some died and were removed. However, happily, the next visit showed this colony as healthy and with no signs of bald brood!

This past Friday, while inspecting colonies on campus, something caught my eye. It reminded me of a refreshing sunrise or perhaps a mixed bit of Play-Doh that my daughter left out: both things I try to keep an eye out for.

It was a special treat that I wanted to share! A rare instance where a honey bee gathered pollen from two different floral sources during its foraging trip. Generally, honey bees practice what is referred to as "floral fidelity." This means they forage from one type of plant at a time. This poses an evolutionary advantage for the plants they visit so they can achieve maximum pollination. However, in some cases, a source will "dry up" or there are not enough flowers of that type to be found, and the forager will change their foraging target.

The red pollen is likely from henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and the yellow is possibly chickweed (Stellaria media)! You’ll see another bee at the bottom of the frame with dull yellow pollen in her corbiculae (pollen baskets) which is from maple (Acer spp.)

Springtime is the kickoff to the active part of the beekeeping season. As temperatures rise here in Maryland, our honey bees start being able to fly out to forage for nectar and pollen from flowering plants. As pollen and nectar become more abundant, honey bee colonies begin rapid population growth to prepare. The colony must have enough workers to forage nectar to work it into honey and store for later use in order to survive the coming winter. Queue the big spring buildup!

During this time of the season, foragers gather pollen and nectar from a variety of plants in order to feed a large amount of offspring. Fascinatingly, honey bees actively manage what pollen is foraged to meet their specific nutritional needs. If there is a pollen with low nutritional value (like that from roses), they will change plants when other options become available to adjust for deficiencies!