In entomology

Entomology

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

, the term brood is used to refer to the embryo or egg

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

, the larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

 and the pupa

Pupa

A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages; embryo, larva, pupa and imago...

 stages in the life of holometabolous

Holometabolism

Holometabolism, also called complete metamorphism, is a term applied to insect groups to describe the specific kind of insect development which includes four life stages - as an embryo or egg, a larva, a pupa and an imago or adult. Holometabolism is a monophyletic trait that all insects in the...

 insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s. The brood of honey bees develops within a bee hive

Beehive (beekeeping)

A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Natural beehives are naturally occurring structures occupied by honeybee colonies, while domesticated honeybees live in man-made beehives, often in an apiary. These man-made...

. In man-made, removable frame hives, such as Langstroth hive

Langstroth hive

The Langstroth bee hive, patented in October 1852, is the standard beehive used in many parts of the world for beekeeping. The advantage of this hive is that the bees build honeycomb into frames, which can be moved with ease. The frames are designed to prevent bees from attaching honeycombs where...

s, each frame which is mainly brood is called a brood frame

Brood comb

The brood comb is the beeswax structure of cells where the queen bee lays eggs. It is the part of the beehive where a new brood is raised by the colony...

. Brood frames usually have some pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

 and nectar or honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

 in the upper corners of the frame. The rest of the brood frames cells may be empty or occupied by brood in various developmental stages. During the brood raising season, the bees may reuse the cells from which brood has emerged for additional brood or convert it to honey or pollen storage. Bees show remarkable flexibility in adapting cells to a use best suited for the hive's survival.

Brood chamber development

In modern removable frame hives the nursery area is in the brood chamber, which beekeepers prefer to be in the bottom box. In the late winter and early spring as the brood cycle begins, the queen starts to lay eggs within the winter cluster

Winter cluster

In beekeeping, a winter cluster is a well-defined cluster of honey bees that forms inside a beehive when the air temperature dips below 54 to 57 °F . Honey bees are but a few insects that survive the winter as a hive. As the outside air temperature decreases the winter cluster becomes tighter and...

 in proximity to available honey stores. Honey bees tend to greatly expand the brood chamber as the season progresses. The relative location of the brood chamber within the beehive may also change as bee keepers add more boxes or as wild bees build fresh comb into available cavities. Some beekeepers ensure that the queen

Queen bee

The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of most, if not all, the bees in the hive. The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature...

 will not go into the upper boxes (called supers or honey super

Honey super

A honey super is a part of a commercial beehive that is used to collect honey. The most common variety is the super with a depth of 6⅝ inches in the length and width dimensions of a Langstroth hive....

s) by placing a screen called a queen excluder

Queen excluder

In beekeeping, the queen excluder is a selective barrier inside the beehive that allows worker bees but not the larger queens and drones to traverse the barrier....

between the boxes. The screen has precisely measured open spaces through which a worker bee

Worker bee

A Worker bee is any female eusocial bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen, as well...

 can pass, but not a queen. Some beekeepers do not use excluders, but try to keep the queen within the intended brood area by keeping a honey barrier of capped honey, which the queen is reluctant to cross, above the brood. In feral hives the honey bees tend to put the brood at bottom center of the cavity, and honey to the sides and above the brood, so beekeepers are trying to follow the natural tendency of the bees.

In the mid to late spring, just before a bee hive would naturally split by swarming, beekeeper

Beekeeper

A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...

s often remove frames of brood, with adhering bees, to make up new starter hives, called "nucs" or nucleus colonies

Nuc

Nucs, or Nucleus Colonies, are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies. The term refers both to the smaller size box and the colony of honeybees within it....

. In areas where the climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

 is mild, one frame may be sufficient to start a new colony, with an added queen. But usually two to three frames are used, together with a frame that is predominantly honey. This ensures that there will be enough adult bees to provide the brood the adequate temperature and sufficient feed if there are a few rainy days when bees cannot gather nectar. If there are not enough adult bees brood may die from cold temperature overnight (aptly called "chilled brood").

Brood development

Bee brood frames

Brood comb

The brood comb is the beeswax structure of cells where the queen bee lays eggs. It is the part of the beehive where a new brood is raised by the colony...

 are composed of brood at various stages of development - eggs, larvae, and pupae. In each cell of honeycomb

Honeycomb

A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal waxcells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey...

, the queen lays an egg, gluing it to the bottom of the cell. The queen tends to lay brood in a circular pattern. At the height of the brood laying season, the queen may lay so many eggs per day, that the brood on a particular frame may be virtually of the same age.

As the egg hatches, worker bees add royal jelly

Royal jelly

Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae, as well as adult queens. It is secreted from the glands in the hypopharynx of worker bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony....

 - a secretion from glands on the heads of young bees. For three days the young larvae are fed royal jelly, then they are fed nectar or diluted honey and pollen. A few female larvae in special queen cups may be selected to become queens. Their special queen cups are flooded with royal jelly for six days. The extra royal jelly speeds up the queen larvae development. Only the queen will have fully developed ovaries, i.e. she will be sexually mature.
Drone

Drone (bee)

Drones are male honey bees. They develop from eggs that have not been fertilized, and they cannot sting, since the worker bee's stinger is a modified ovipositor .-Etymology:...

 brood develops from unfertilized eggs. Drone brood cells are larger than the cells of female worker bees.
Young larvae eat their way through the royal jelly in a circular pattern until they become crowded, then they stretch out lengthwise in the cell. Soon they begin to spin a cocoon, and their older sisters cap the cell as they go into the pupa stage. These cells collectively are called "capped brood."

Type	Egg	Larva	Cell capped	Pupa	Emergence	Start of Fertility
Queen Queen bee The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of most, if not all, the bees in the hive. The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature...	until day 3	until day 5½	until day 7½	until day 8	from day 16 on	approx. 23rd day
Worker Worker bee A Worker bee is any female eusocial bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen, as well...	until day 3	until day 6	until day 9	until day 12	from day 21 on	N/A
Drone Drone (bee) Drones are male honey bees. They develop from eggs that have not been fertilized, and they cannot sting, since the worker bee's stinger is a modified ovipositor .-Etymology:...	until day 3	until day 6½	until day 10	until day 14½	from day 24 on	approx. 38th day

Rating brood

Hives that are rated for pollination

Pollination management

Pollination Management is the label for horticultural practices that accomplish or enhance pollination of a crop, to improve yield or quality, by understanding of the particular crop's pollination needs, and by knowledgeable management of pollenizers, pollinators, and pollination...

purposes are generally evaluated in terms of the number of frames of brood.