Bees start out as eggs, little mini rice grain type eggs stuck to the bottom of the cells.
This lasts 3 days.
Then the egg hatches and becomes a larva. It gets fatter and fatter for the next 5-7 days (depending on what kind of bee it is...queen, drone, worker) as the nurse bees feed it.
The worker bees "cap the brood" or put a skin over the cell on day 8-10 (usually day 9 for workers). During this time, although you cannot see it, the larva spins a cocoon around itself and turns brown and "beelike".
On day 16-24 (20 for workers), the brand new baby bee emerges!!!
So, I discovered capped brood and a lot of it last Wednesday. My bee math led me to believe that if I did an inspection this week I would see new baby bees.
And I was right!!
Last time I went in the hive, there were two little rows of eyes staring at me.
Today, there were FIVE!!!
I found TWO full capped frames of brood today (which means I will have twice the bees in two weeks), two full frames of honey/pollen, and two partially drawn out frames (they are working on building the honeycomb but nothing is in it yet). And that capped brood from last week? It's got new eggs in it! WOW!
I was particularly excited to ACTUALLY SEE THE BROOD HATCHING. Their little heads and eyes were poking out holes in the cell and the workers were trying to help them get out.
There are now fuzzy, smaller, yellow bees in with my Italians. Carnolians are supposed to be dark-colored, but unless these bees darken up, they're actually rather pretty, although they have less striking bands. If I'm right about it, there's one in the lower left corner.
All in all, what a GREAT bee day! Brad was here to see it. I wish Sandy had been here as well, she would have been so excited!! She's going to get QUITE a surprise when she opens her hive next, I think!
Congrats all the way from Virginia!! ... on my way home!
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