Brood comb

The term describes the comb that is used by the queen bee to lay eggs. It is the area of the beehive where new brood is raised. Brood comb is usually in the lower part of the beehive while honey comb may surround the brood area and is exclusively in the honey supers. When a queen does not have enough brood comb to lay eggs due to congestion of the brood area with pollen or honey the bee colony may become more prone to swarming.

Size

The hexagonal cells for the brood comb vary in diameter. The size ranges between less than 4.6 mm to greater than 6 mm. Drone bees require the largest cell size. There is some evidence that suggests that a smaller cell enables a faster bee development time from egg to fully developed bee.

Queen cells

Queen bees are not raised in the hexagonal brood comb but require a special queen cell .