Key Words:

Nuc or Nucleus Hive – a small hive that usually has 4 frames of bees and brood, and a queen. It is what most people start with when they begin keeping bees.

Brood Pattern - the shape or the pattern of brood where the queen lays her eggs. There should not be too many empty cells in the brood area. A hive that has a young healthy queen will have a good, full brood pattern.

Spotty Brood Pattern – A brood pattern that has many empty cells where the queen has not laid eggs. This can mean you have a poor, old, or failing queen.

Weak Hive – A beehive that has a small number of worker bees with only a few flying in and out of the hive entrance, and only a few frames covered with bees and brood.

Strong Hive – A beehive that has a large number of worker bees. A strong hive will have many bees flying in and out of the entrance, and many frames covered with bees and brood.

Queen right – when a hive has a queen that is laying eggs. You can tell that a hive is queen right if you see eggs in the hive. If you see the queen, but don’t see any eggs then the hive is not queen right.