The Swarm and the City way to remember the difference between brood cells.

So in my last post, I mentioned the mass massacre of all the poor drone brood in the hive to manage the Varroa mite infestation. It was a hardcore feminist's dream, but not my kind of fun! Poor boys! When you get stuck into a hive you will become familiar with all the components that make it up. I'll post up different kinds of hive and their components soon.

This post is purely a simple easy way to remember how to spot which cells house a drone larva / Pupa. Think of it like shaving rash. When a larva is ready to pupate into a bee, the lady worker bees cap off the top of the cell with wax so the bee inside can get changed in private. If the bee inside is female, the cell is capped off flat. If the bee is male, the cell is capped off raised, so the surface of the comb has bumps on it like shaving rash on a fella's chin. Also, more often than not the lady bees raise drones round the edges of the comb. I've attached a picture I've taken for you from inside our hive, with some big massive red arrows pointing to the drone brood shaving rash cells. Now you have no excuses for getting brood cells mixed up. If this ever get's asked in a pub quiz and you win, you owe me a cocktail!