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Any novice beekeeper, wishing to delve into all the nuances of bee breeding, one way or another, is faced with a large number of processes and terms that at first may seem complicated. These include drone brood, which is called one of the mysteries of honey bees, the study of which is an important part of the experience of every beekeeper.
What is brood, its importance in beekeeping
Like many insects, bees go through a certain stage of development before becoming adults. In a general sense, brood is the totality of all the offspring of a bee colony, which is also called "babies".
Since the development of a bee colony has its own laws, by the appearance and the number of children in the hive, one can draw a conclusion about the state of the swarm, its health and functionality. A large brood invariably leads to the appearance of young worker bees, which means an increase in honey yield.
Bees are very organized creatures that not only perform their clearly assigned tasks in the hive, but also have strictly designated areas both for children of different species and for the products of their vital activity. As you can see in the photo, the brood of bees is usually placed in the center, while the food is at the edges.
In addition, brood frames, in contrast to food frames, have a more convex and rough structure.
What does a bee brood look like?
Externally, the bee brood is a wax cell in which the babies of bees are at different stages of growth. Depending on these stages, it can be open or closed.
Brood is considered to be open in uncorked cells, where bee larvae are already present. As a rule, the larvae emerge from the eggs on the third day and look like transparent worms without legs and wings. At this stage, worker bees feed the babies with royal jelly, bee bread and honey in different proportions - until the larva enters the pupal phase. The photo below shows an open brood of bees.
As soon as the baby begins to pupate, the worker bees stop feeding her and seal the cell with a porous wax lid. From this moment on, the brood of bees is called printed.
Despite the verified dynamics that exist in the bee family, it rarely happens that all babies in the hive develop synchronously. Due to changes in temperature and humidity or transferred diseases, part of the offspring may die, and then the uterus lays new eggs in the unoccupied cells. This leads to the appearance in the family of children in sealed and open cells at the same time - the so-called "motley brood".
Photos of bee brood by day
Regardless of the breed of bees and their role in the hive, the stages of brood formation can be summarized in the following table:
Stage of development | Duration in days | ||
| Uterus | Worker bee | Drone |
Egg
| 3 | 3 | 3 |
Larva
| 5 | 6 | 7 |
Prepupa
| 2 | 3 | 4 |
Chrysalis
| 6 | 9 | 10 |
How to find out the daily brood
Having studied the hierarchy of bees, we can conclude that in this complexly organized community, all actions of the members of the hive, from the worker bee to the queen, are subject to a certain algorithm, which is regularly repeated in a healthy family.Therefore, it will not be difficult for an experienced beekeeper to determine the age of children of any type with an accuracy of 24 hours.
So, the uterus, when laying eggs - worming - places the offspring at the bottom of the combs, one egg in each cell. A one-day bee brood is located vertically in the cell, as in the photo, but as it develops, it acquires a horizontal position by the time a larva emerges from it.
On what day do the bees seal the brood?
Bee larvae immediately after hatching begin to feed intensively under the supervision of working insects. Moreover, the type of food for children directly depends on their future role in the family. By the end of the third day, the babies grow much in size. The worker bees then stop feeding the open brood and seal the entrance to the cell to complete the baby-to-adult transformation process.
When the last bee brood comes out in autumn
In healthy communities of bees with a functional queen no older than 2 years, babies appear starting in spring, after the insects leave wintering, and until the end of summer. The last brood comes out, as a rule, in late August - early September. By this time, they usually stop feeding the bees for the winter and move on to cleaning the nests.
Types of bee brood
Depending on the type of eggs seeded by the queen in the combs, the bee brood is divided into 2 types:
- worker bees;
- drone.
Since worker bees make up the bulk of the family, their brood accounts for most of the combs. A worker bee emerges from eggs fertilized by drones; it takes 21 days to complete its development from a baby to an adult.
A drone brood is a baby bee, from which male bees, called drones, will subsequently grow. Their developmental stages are similar to those of worker bees, but take longer - 24 days in total. They also hatch from an unfertilized seed. Drones have no other function than fertilizing the uterus. Below is a photo of a drone brood.
After how many days does the printed brood come out?
As can be seen from the diagram above, the release of the printed brood, and, consequently, the transformation of the baby into an adult insect, is associated with the role of the bee in the community. So, the queens need only 6 days for a complete metamorphosis from the pupa to the mature individual - this is the shortest cycle. The worker bees need a little more time - 9 days. Drones are subject to the longest transformation: 10 full days.
Brood diseases
With insufficient care, a swarm of bees can be exposed to various diseases, which in most cases affect the bee offspring. Among the most common diseases are:
- Baggy brood - a viral infectious disease affecting larvae of 3 days of age. The virus enters the hives from wild bees and bee pests and is carried through the infected beekeeper's inventory. Symptoms include a cloudy color of babies and a gradual darkening of the head. Then the larvae of the bees turn completely black and dry out. When such a diagnosis is established, the affected combs and children are destroyed, and the queen is removed from the bee colony for 1 week to stop egg-laying. Hives, combs with fodder honey, inventory and other things that have come into contact with the infected swarm are disinfected. The swarm of bees itself is treated with a 3% solution of potassium permanganate in a ratio of 100 ml per 1 frame.Important! Potassium permanganate should not fall on open brood, otherwise some of the babies will die.
- Lime brood, or axospherosis, is a contagious disease caused by spores of a moldy variety of fungi. During the course of the disease, the body of the baby bee begins to become covered with mold, become shiny, becomes off-white and hardens. After that, the mushroom captures the entire space of the honeycomb, mummifying the larva. If symptoms of the disease are detected, the honeycomb with the sick offspring is sent to the veterinary laboratory. Infected combs and dead bees are removed from diseased colonies. The nest is cleaned, insulated and ventilated.For treatment, antibiotics nystatin and griseofulvin are used (500,000 OD per 1 liter of sugar syrup) - 100 g per 1 frame, once every 5 days. The general course of treatment is 15 days.
- Stone brood, or aspergillosis - an infectious disease that affects children and adult bees. It is caused by two types of molds of the genus Aspergillus: black and yellow. When the honeycomb is infected, the larvae and bees become covered with fluffy mold of the corresponding color. Treatment is carried out in the same way as for axosphereosis.
In addition to the ailments listed above, lattice and humpback brood are also distinguished. They are not classified as diseases, but as disorders of the vital functions of individual hives, which can be easily corrected with due diligence.
Thus, lattice brood occurs for a number of reasons, the most common of which is the presence of a diseased or old uterus, which does not sow eggs so densely on the combs. This leaves unevenly spaced empty cells. The problem is solved by replacing the uterus with a younger individual.
Humpback brood requires more detailed consideration due to its specificity.
What is "humpback brood" in bees?
This is a phenomenon in which the queen bee lays drone eggs in cells intended for eggs, from which the worker bees subsequently hatch. Such cells are small and unable to accommodate the entire pupa of a male bee, which is why, when sealed, the cap takes a curved shape, as if forming a hump. Male bees emerge from the affected cells deformed and small compared to healthy drones.
From time to time, such brood in small numbers can be seen in full-fledged functional queens, most often in early spring. As a rule, soon the life of the colony returns to normal, and the children begin to develop normally.
But if the trend is continuous, it serves as a sign that the uterus has lost the ability to lay eggs for some reason or has died. Then, after about 2 weeks, some of the worker bees acquire the ability to lay eggs. However, unlike the queen, they can only worm with drone brood, for which they are called tinder bees. In addition, tinder fungi cannot distinguish between drone combs and worker bee breeding cells, which is why humpback brood is formed.
Humpback brood in bees can be identified by the following signs:
- the combs in the open brood are smaller than the larvae in them;
- the closed brood has a convex surface;
- there are several eggs in one cell;
- eggs are located not on the bottom, but on the walls of the cells.
How to fix humpback brood in bees
There are several ways to eliminate this anomaly, which depend on the size of the bee family and the season when the violation manifested itself.
So, a small swarm of bees (up to 6 frames) would be wiser to dissolve or to hibernate with a larger family.
In the case of large communities, you need to act as follows:
- Move 1 - 2 frames with masonry from a strong swarm.
- Transplant a queen with several bees from there, which will speed up its adaptation.
- Remove the humpback brood from the frames and return to the hive.
Many beekeepers use a different method:
- Frames with disturbed brood are taken from the hive at some distance and the babies are shaken out, thoroughly cleaning the combs.
- Then replace the old hive with a new one. After some time, a swarm of bees will settle down in an unusual place, leaving the flightless drone queens outside.
What to do if there is no brood in the hive
Often, novice beekeepers are faced with a situation where, it would seem, there are no signs of disease, and there is no brood in the hive. This can happen for several reasons:
- the uterus has died;
- The uterus is weak or too old to continue laying;
- there is not enough food for the bees in the hive.
In the first case, it is enough to add a family of bees to another swarm, in which there is a queen, or to plant a young fetal queen in a queenless family. With this method, it is better to use a special cage: this will help the queen to adapt to the change of environment and protect her if the bees react aggressively to the new family member.
If there is a queen in the hive, but not worms and there is no brood, this may be due to her age. As a rule, queens retain the ability to lay eggs for 2 years, but in multi-level hives, where the load is many times higher, queens need to be replaced annually.
If there is no brood in August, this may be due to the early transition of the bee colony to winter mode. It usually takes place at the beginning of September: at the same time the last children emerge from the sealed honeycomb. However, the beginning of wintering may shift to mid-August if there is not enough food in the hive to feed the brood. To solve this problem, it is enough to feed the swarm with syrup - and then the uterus will return to its duties.
The value of brood for humans
In addition to its undoubted value directly for beekeepers, bee brood is also of interest to people who are very far from breeding bees.
So, some African tribes regularly eat it. Despite the fact that this dish is extremely exotic, it is a rich source of protein and can rival meat in its content. In addition, it contains a huge amount of vitamin D and various mineral compounds, including calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc and sodium. It also contains more than 30 amino acids, which are involved in all processes of the human body and strengthen the immune system.
Often, bee babies and other bee products are used in apitherapy to treat disorders of the endocrine and prostate glands, female and male infertility and to relieve symptoms of menopause.
Larval milk has proven to be beneficial in cosmetology. It is found in anti-aging masks and creams for its anti-aging properties.
Conclusion
Both bee and drone brood are of great importance. For beekeepers, it serves as an indicator of the health and proper functioning of the bee colony, while a common man in the street will appreciate its medicinal and cosmetic properties.
