In 2016 and 2017, we identified pairs of colonies with “good” and “poor” brood patterns in commercial
beekeeping operations and used standard metrics to assess queen and colony health. We found no
queen quality measures reliably associated with poor-brood colonies. In the second year (2017),
we exchanged queens between colony pairs (n = 21): a queen from a poor-brood colony was
introduced into a good-brood colony and vice versa. We observed that brood patterns of queens
originally from poor-brood colonies significantly improved after placement into a good-brood colony
after 21 days, suggesting factors other than the queen contributed to brood pattern. Our study
challenges the notion that brood pattern alone is sufficient to judge queen quality. 

Conclusions
Brood pattern alone was an insufficient proxy of queen quality. In future studies, it is important to
define the specific symptoms of queen failure being studied in order to address issues in queen health.

Kathleen V. Lee, & al (2019) Is the Brood Pattern within a Honey Bee Colony a Reliable Indicator of Queen Quality?

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