# Assessing 24-day old hive. Am I just impatient?



## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

yes, the broodnest typically sits at the center of the comb/colony.


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## beh010 (Apr 26, 2016)

Hi there - I am also in my first year and installed two packages in early April. 



> Is this normal for a 24-day old colony? Is it common for all the bees to be covering the worker brood so that the only way I could see it would be to pull it out?


Yes, they do tend to cover the brood. I did full inspections every week for the first month and a half because I was curious and wanted to learn as much as possible. Despite all of my research, I still made several mistakes that were only corrected as a result of those inspections. The educational value far outweighs the temporary disruption you might cause by opening the hive.

The biggest thing (as I am sure you know) is to make sure you have a good laying queen. The only way to tell is to check for eggs and larva in various stages of development. If all you can see is drone brood then you may have a bad queen or a laying worker. Both require immediate action.



> Is it also common to have all the capped brood concentrated at the absolute center of the comb?


The bees tend to start in the middle of the hive and build outwards. Just imagine an expanding sphere. I'm not sure where your observation windows are. If its on the side then you may only be able to see the outermost frames which will be built out last. Mine took about 6 weeks to completely fill up the first brood chamber (10 frame).


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## bobbybee (Sep 8, 2014)

Since this is a Warre hive with observation windows, I want to avoid too much interference. Most of my data is coming from outside the hive and peering in the window.


I'm not sure how many observation windows you have, but you can't see the details that you need to without a good inspection. I have a hive with a new laying queen. She decided that frames 6-9 were the ones she wanted to use. You can imagine my concern while looking through frames 1-5. I understand not wanting to disturb the hive, but you have to open the hive and take a look. You have to touch, feel and see first hand in order to learn. jmo


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## grantsbees (May 9, 2016)

What great comments. My other hive is 15 days older and has 8 fully drawn "frames". So the comparison between the 24 day and the 39 day is dramatic. I know worker brood takes 22 days from egg to emergence so the population may not have increased quite yet.

From what I read I was getting the impression the queen just lays eggs all day long so I just thought she would have filled every cell she could. I guess that's not the case.

The window is where I can see all frames from the side. I do notice that the workers concentrate on the side where the queen was released.

And by center of the comb, I will clarify by saying center of the frame


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