low amount of brood

[yolanda huang]

Hi Everyone,

I have 3 hives, and checked 2 of them this week, and was surprised to see a low amount of brood.    Maybe 30-50% coverage only in the 4 center frames.

Is this normal?  Is anyone else experiencing this?

Yolanda

[Jerry Przybylski]

In summer forage sources disappear or get stingy. 

There isn’t much food coming in so bees should cut back on population. 

Randy Oliver argues that mites continue to expand their population so our colonies will collapse if we don’t treat them. That assumes colonies aren’t able to control Varroa on their own. 

The swarm-colonies we keep mostly Do control mites. 

Known your bees by doing enough Varroa assays to tell whether they are resistant. 

If they keep the Varroa population below a percent or two they are good. 

If over 4 percent and increasing they probably need some sort of mitigation and a queen replacement since the workers from that queen aren’t expressing the mite resistance traits 

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On Jul 21, 2026, at 10:58 PM, yolanda huang <yogre...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Phil Stob]

Yolanda, 

It kinda depends on where you live.   If you live next to open space, then your forage options are pretty slim, and the bees will start to reduce their population this time of year.   If, on the other hand, you live in the midst of suburbia,  where there are ample well watered gardens, then there isn't as much of a dearth.  

Cheers, Phil 

[yolanda huang]

I live in the middle of Berkeley, and I seem to see lots of trees in bloom.  There are crepe myrtles and strawberry trees in bloom.  And within a mile, there's some eucalyptus.  Is anyone else in the S. Berkeley area experiencing a dearth?  Yolanda

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[Gerald Przybylski]

Hmmm
Parts of Berkeley and north Oakland are overrun with beekeepers, so there can be a lot of competition for the summer nectar.   
Keep in mind that bees forage a half-mile to two mile radius from their hive.   Your local food sources can be tapped out even though your surrounding blocks don't have that many beekeepers.   
It seems to me that the city can support a beekeeper per one or two blocks.  In nature (rural areas) it's probably more like one colony per square kilometer. 

When there's not enough food coming in, the bees cannibalize eggs, and maybe larva too, so the ones they do raise get enough food. 

There's not much point in feeding now to Stimulate brood production, since food is only getting more scarce. 

Make sure the mites aren't getting out of hand, and that they have some capped honey to tap into as the dearth continues. 

Colonies with no capped honey should probably be fed heavy syrup. 
Why 2-to-1 syrup?  The sugar concentration is so high it doesn't ferment or grow algae in it.  So it's less likely to go bad during the warm weather. 

that's my 2¢

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[yolanda huang]

Thank-you!

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[Jim Veitch]

Hi Yolanda,

I'm out of town for a few weeks so I can't inspect but in past years it was common to see brood cutbacks in our area at this time of year. What eucalyptus is flowering?

Jim

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[yolanda huang]

there's one just North of College, and south of Russell, on Hillegass or Regent? I see it often because I go by with my dogs.  It's red flowers all over the tree.  and the eucalyptus along 51st by the freeway are also blooming.

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[Jim Veitch]

The red flowering eucalypts are most likely Corymbia ficifolia which are great for bees (and hummingbirds) and flower profusely at this time of year, but there just aren't that many of them.  51st by the freeway is about 1.5 miles from your backyard, so not a preferred food source because of the time and effort to fly back and forth. 

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[gmau...@earthlink.net]

Two of my colonies in Fremont showed low amounts of brood when inspected four to five weeks ago.  They had plenty of stores so I wasn't too worried and even made a split from one of the stronger ones.  The split has since failed.  Making queens has been a struggle for me this year.

Two swarms baited in this past spring were gifted to a friend (Craig) that I am currently mentoring.  My hope was that the swarms were managing their mites but one was at 15 and the other was at 9 mites per 1/2 cup of bees when we checked them three weeks ago.  We began treating soon after.  Both colonies had plenty of brood at the time but they had been getting fed since being moved.  I have noticed that the bees have become a lot more defensive relative to when they were moved.  It could be simply because they have grown into fairly good size colonies and there being more guard bees around.  It could also be the result of having ceased feeding and the onset of the dearth.  At my request, Craig will be making and installing beds of nails around the entrances to eliminate the possibility of it being night critter caused.  Craig reported having seen bees wrestling at the entrance which is a sign of robbing so we are also looking at installing robbing screens to help calm the colonies down.  The bees aren't yet stingy but they are buzzy and them tracking us 30 to 40 feet from the hive has my hot hive spidy sense on high alert.  

I feel it important that new beekeepers learn what is and what isn't acceptable back yard bee behavior early in their beekeeping journey.  It is not common for new beekeepers to make excuses for their bees.  I've even seen someone give up accessing their own back yard because of their bees.  

YolandaN