# Reference pictures info



## Aussiemum (Oct 6, 2011)

Hi all , 
I have just added a beehive at the beginning of November from a 5 frame nuc to our farm. I have been reading for weeks and watching YouTube videos and have become a bit bee obsessed. 

It is spring here and My bees have been very active in my fruit trees and have big pollen bags on their legs when them come in as I sit and watch them at my afternoon tea break (best 15 minutes of my day!) 

My question is that I’m not quite sure when you add a super. Today they have an almost untouched frame on the end (it is an 8 frame hive) but are building on the tops of some of the fuller frames. 

I have looked at the frames and although I have read and watched videos I have no idea what all the components are. I can see baby larva and bigger larva and my queen is lovely and working well but there are these cells that seem to have fuzz caps on them and some honey but I’m not sure what pollen looks like and how to tell - is there somewhere here that has pictures as references for newbies?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

There are no images for referance I know of here on what pollen in cells look like.
How ever I have learned over the years if you use the right words and search on goggle you can usually find what you want to see.










Of course the pollen isn't always yellow when it is in the cells either.
some times it is red in color and gray even. Lot depends on the color of the pollen they are bringing in.









some times it doesn't even make it to the cells and is just loose grainjs on the bottom board, landing boards and other places.











 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

When to add a super *for you is when they have 6 of the 8 frames *in your hive drawn out and are starting to fill them up with honey and pollen.

If you having a problem getting them to draw the foundation out in a frame insert it between a couple that are all finished.


 Al


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## Aussiemum (Oct 6, 2011)

What are the fuzzy capped cells all over mine? are they capped brood?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I need a close up picture of thre fuzzy cell caps.


 Al


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## Aussiemum (Oct 6, 2011)

Is it worker bee brood?


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## Aussiemum (Oct 6, 2011)




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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Those are totally normal capped brood cells. Looks like the queen is doing a out standing job too.


 al


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## Aussiemum (Oct 6, 2011)

On December 10th I put a new full 8 frame super on top of the brood box -I didn’t put a queen excluder on as I planned on putting a 3rd box with the excluder between the 2nd & 3rd box and leaving it as 3 boxes for winter (cold weather starting for us around may) 

The amount/activity of bees has increased at the entrance and lots of pollen visible on legs etc. 

I looked in today at the frames and over half of the new box is drawn comb and it is full of honey but no brood the honey seems to be open as it drips when I lifted the frames which seemed to really agitate the bees- usually they are very placid when I inspect the frames. 

the top box middle 3 frames are heavily covered in bees and honey and a lot of the comb is cross combed between the bottom box and the new frames in the top box such that the middle two were completely stuck in by the comb onto the bottom - the bottom box is absolutely full of bees. 


Do I trim up all this cross combed - why is there no brood in the new box?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes cut the burr comb away or it will get worse. The bees are removing the moisture from the nectar and then will cap the honey in the cells.

They seem to think they have enough room for the queen to lay eggs in the bottom two boxes and are useing rthe 3d for honey storage. Closer to May you get the more honey that will go into the bottom two boxes also.

How cold do your winters get?

 Al


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## Aussiemum (Oct 6, 2011)

The full honey box is my second box -I hoped it would be a broodbox and I could add a 3rd for honey prior to winter but this second is full of uncapped honey.


We get to -5/-10’C overnight in winter (14-23’F)

The days stay about 10’C (50’F) with occasional snow usually only 1-5 days a year

Now it is midsummer for us and the days are around 35’C (98’F) and will stay warm until at least late April before the milder weather comes


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I would add the third box on then. They may move the uncapped honey up to the third box. that would allow the queen more room to lay. Reason the second box is full of honey they sort of ran out of room to put it else where.

 Al


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