Brood pattern in early spring

[Greg Peck]

I took my hive apart today and moved all the frames from the old broken HB to a new one. I noticed that the brood pattern was pretty  sporadic. Is it normal for the brood pattern to be like this in the beginning of the season or should the queen be laying a decent pattern right off the bat. I don’t know how old she is as I bought this hive late last year. 

The hive seems to be coming along but is still small. If the queen needs to be replaced would it bee a good idea to use the queen from one of my packages and add the package to this hive? 

PS if you happen to see the queen in the photos let me know. I cant find her.

This is a pic of one of the frames that had some brood on it.

Click to enlarge!

This is a pic of another frame with some brood on it.

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This is a pic of the hvie

Click to enlarge!

[Brian D. Bray]

The brood pattern will be fairly semetrical from the onset.  Maybe not filling the lower 3/4s of the comb but well defined.  A frame of brood should only have a few holes from hygenic behavior.  Areas of comb w/o brood giving a shotgun appearance is usually considered: 1. A failing queen, or 2. A young queen that has just begun to lay.  The difference would be based on the age of the brood--capped vs uncapped--or personal knowledge.  Be sure to check for clusters of polen staches amoungst the brood as than can affect the pattern.

If it's an older queen I would replace her with new stock before the bees begin supercedure.  Attempts at supercedure sometimes takes place to late in the life of the existing queen to be successful.