Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Looks like a small colony with a good queen which starved out. Possibly had a high varroa load looking at perforated cappings. Also looks like they had a brood break then the queen restarted laying and they then ran out of food.
I have a 5 frame nuc that has 3 frames of about 50% brood at the moment and I have to keep swapping out the outer 2 frames to keep them topped up with stores, they would be dead by now if I didn't.
It can be an indication of hygenic behaviour - bees removing the cappings to deal with the varroa. I believe the diseased brood gives a different odour which then encourages the workers to uncap.