Help identifying brood structure

[Andrew Westbury]

Hi all,

We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and reduced our hive size in preparation for winter. In the process, I noticed this structure in the main brood chamber. Any ideas what it might be? I was concerned it was a queen cell but it seems very small.

Thank you for any insights!
Drew

[Sung Han Lee]

It looks like a queen cup.

When there is an egg in the cup then officially it becomes queen cell. You will see cups time to time it could be a back up just in case. It appears to be a cup.

You wanna turn upside down and look in the cup to see anything inside like an egg or creamy jelly which is royal jelly. Stand with the sun behind you and point the bottom of the cup to the sun.

Next question is...

Did you see the queen?

Were you able to see eggs?

That's the most crucial sighting. 

Any sign at all.

Since you are reducing down you should be able to witness these two things. 

I usually take photos diligently just in case i miss something then i can review at my leisure just like you did. Often times people try to explain to me but one photo would have saved thousands of word.

If you have android phone you can set up voice command setting that you don't need two hands to take photos.  Just point the phone and say Cheeze, Shoot or Smile. Or say Record Video to take videos ( this function need to press to stop button to stop the video).

Today will be another nice day to dive in to confirm what the situation is. 

I have been going in every day to make sure all the hives set for weather changes. 

Sung Lee The Bee Charmer 

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[Andrew Westbury]

Thank you, Sung Lee. We are first time beekeepers. We tried to spot the queen pretty diligently, but did not. I am not sure if that is due to our inexperience or something else. We did see capped brood but no fresh larva. I have no reason to believe that the queen would not be there. The hive was super active with tons of pollen, honey, and some brood. Thanks for the tip on searching for the eggs in the queen cup!  

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-alameda-county-beekeepers-association/CAGwtHchX13e0LXYkRY0qCiVCAKJ-kzDr1YwiS2J-ZT%3DFkgWPMw%40mail.gmail.com.