How do I manage colony population and brood cycles?
Colony strength runs about three weeks behind the queen's laying, because a worker takes twenty-one days from egg to emergence and then a further two to three weeks before she forages. Manage for the flow you want six weeks from now, not the bees in front of you today. That lag governs every timing decision in beekeeping.
The full lesson
The incredible order inside the hive is not run by worker bees, but by the queen's invisible chemical messages called pheromones. A forager bee communicates the exact direction and distance of a new food source to others using a special waggle dance.
If a hive stays queenless for too long, worker bees' ovaries develop. They start laying only drone eggs, leading the colony to collapse. Drones don't just mate, they help regulate the hive's temperature by fanning their wings and keep the colony's motivation high.
Royal jelly isn't collected from flowers. It's a protein-rich, miraculous food secreted from the glands in the heads of young worker bees. To prevent a strong colony from swarming, a beekeeper must split the hive in time or
expand the space by adding a new super.
This lesson is also in the app, along with the other twenty-nine.
Next lessons
How do I identify and treat bee diseases?
1:33 3How do I harvest pollen, propolis and royal jelly?
1:25 4How do I rear and mate my own queens?
1:42Lessons and forum answers describe beekeeping practice and peer experience, not veterinary guidance. Treatment thresholds, inspection timing and disease management vary by climate, subspecies and local regulation. Diseases that are notifiable where you live must be reported to your national bee inspectorate.