What a Healthy Colony Looks Like
Licensed by Shutterstock
The picture above shows developing larvae and capped pupae. Cells that were previously used are used again to hold developing bees. The queen has laid eggs in the newly available cells, the net effect being a continual development of bees.
There is a strong temptation for new beekeepers to worry that their hive has every bee disease known to humans and then some. The truth of the matter is that honey bees are usually pretty healthy. You are likely to encounter the Varroa mite, so we encourage you to know about them and their life cycle; American Foul Brood is a contagious and reportable bee disease, so you should 1) know that it exists, and 2) know a bit about the symptoms, and 3) know that most beekeepers have never seen it. If you are starting with bees, it is far more essential to know what healthy brood and bees look like. If you think something is off, review the pests and diseases listed here - we’ve tried to include most and provide Maine-specific information where applicable.
Honey bees are an insect used in agriculture for plant pollination AND producing honey and other crops. In other words, beekeepers are farmers.
When a colony is started with a 3-pound package, it contains approximately 10,000 bees. If everything goes right, the population will increase to just over 50,000 by summer’s end and then decline to about 15,000 over the fall and winter. (Colonies started from Nucelii or swarms vary tremendously in population.) The population can grow several times in response to food availability.
If a colony is started without drawn comb or with no foundation, it has no food stores. Beekeepers feeding sugar syrup (a carbohydrate) is reasonable to establish the colony and provide continuous feed, with the ultimate goal of having the colony collect its food. Generally, in Maine, natural pollen is abundant, allowing bees to collect adequate amounts seasonally. Pollen (or pollen substitute) is an appropriate feed ONLY when you want the bees to do something they wouldn’t do naturally, or on a different schedule.
Randy Oliver, Scientific Beekeeping