Hello Joe & All,
Thanks for the post & pictures. I quickly jump in on these types of posts as
I usually have an opinion and not afraid to share. my opinion is based on
the millions of frames of brood I have observed over my decades of
beekeeping. My opinion may vary from others willing to post.

I must add that I have posted before that a truly hygienic colony being
left hygienic  as its sole method of varroa control will pull so much brood 
it will in
my opinion reduce the productivity to a level the commercial beekeeper might
not want. Such was the case with the first SMR genetics released.

One issue I have with the pictures is there are no frames with all stages of
brood ( or the pictures are to dark to observe). I can tell more about the
whys of the brood pattern when holding a frame of all stage brood. The
pictures posted show brood about ready to emerge.

Will say the slightly sunken cappings and way the brood is laid out on the
frame indicates in my opinion weak hives under stress.

2. That it is extremely difficult to interpret the cause of a spotty brood
pattern, therefore, ignoring a poor pattern might lead to unintended
consequence.

I never ignore poor brood patterns when looking at breeder queen choice. In
production hives I simply mark poor brood patterns for requeening.
Especially  non prolific bees with poor brood patterns. The solution for the
commercial beekeeper when he/she sees the problem is (as it has been since
the start of beekeeping) is a *new* queen ( and in my opinion not from a
walk away split on such a hive).

I believe good queens with good genetics pay dividends rather than cost. The
queen is the heart of the hive.

My main concern is healthy brood ( when checking a hive) and bees which are
prolific enough to provide honey & pollination. When teaching new beekeepers
I hand each a few frames of healthy brood and say to comment to memory. When
you see brood which is not like what I handed you you have a problem. many
things can cause the problem and may or may not be serious but still not
what I want to see.

 I see controlling varroa etc. as my best choice until a line of bees is
found with which I will not have to check each hive constantly for mite load
and will not produce huge hive lost and dinks. I add to the discussion as
perhaps I am not the beekeeper to give the best information on Joe's
pictures.

bob

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