Michael Palmer – Brood Factories
A brood factory is a beehive that is specifically designed to produce frames of brood, or young bees in their larval stage, for use in other beehives. The purpose of a brood factory is to provide a consistent source of brood to be used to boost the population of honey production colonies, replace failing queens, or resuscitate weak colonies. Brood factories can be any style of beehive, as long as they use the same frames as the rest of the apiary. The goal of a brood factory is to make the apiary more sustainable by providing a way to consistently produce new bees and maintain the health of the hive population.
- A brood factory is a beehive whose purpose is to produce frames of brood for the apiary.
- Any style of beehive can be used as a brood factory, as long as it uses the same frames as the rest of the apiary.
- The concept of using a brood factory to boost honey production colonies was devised by Brother Columbian in 1900.
- A sustainable apiary has three parts that support each other: production colonies, mating nuclei, and nucleus colonies (brood factories).
- Brood factories provide bees and brood to:
1) boost weak or slow colonies;
2) strengthen cell builders;
3) start nucleus colonies.