I'll jump in here - (but still a rookie at this game too).

The first picture looks like the bees were interrupted when they were spinning the combs. It is an interesting process whereby they join hands (or whatever) and when they do, produce the hexagonal figures as they spin out the wax onto the plastic frame inserts. At one point in time, I opened the hive, unaware of their work and pulled them away from the side of the frame, hence, the awkward formation.

At least that was my opinion. The bees need to spin these wax forms to hold not only the honey, but so the queen can start laying her eggs into the cavities.

So that is my interpretation of what I see in your blog.

Good luck.

Bejay

I can query my beekeeping club members and see what they come up with concerning your problem. There is a lot of ol' time bee wisdom in that group so someone should have an idea of what you are dealing with. I'll post their response(s) as I get them.

Cheers.

Oh, btw, can you still see your queen as of today (4/19/06)?

One thing also to remember is that "Bee Space" needs to be respected. Bee space is about 1/4" to 3/8".

"If the space is bigger than 3/8 of an inch, the bees will build (brace/burr) comb. If it is less than 1/4 inch, they will attach propolis." - http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/history1.htm

What I am seeing looks like brace/burr comb being built up by the bees. So making sure that your frames are spaced properly (no missing frames or gaps), should help cure that.

Also, here is a link to a Bee Encyclopedia I just found which may be helpful to you. - http://www.beecare.com/Encyclopedia/Encyclopedia%20A.htm

Hope that helps some. I'll be looking out for my members responses re: your specific brood question.

Cheers.

Still waiting for some follow-ups but in the meantime, here are some things to think about:

1) Did you get a mated queen or not? If not, she will have to mate before she begins to lay eggs, so this may take a little time.

2) The queen may have been injured somewhere along the delivery-installation process, so it is a good idea to check up on her.

3) Also, there is a process that the queen needs to be introduced into the hive. If this process is not followed, she may be killed by worker bees. You should review the process for queening your hive to see if there were any steps left out. This link may help - http://www.algonet.se/~beeman/biodling/req.htm

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Hope all goes well.

Cheers.

I hope that by now you have identified your problem (if you had one)and have applied a fix. I would like to recommend a very helpful source of bee info. go to www.beesource.com