Honey Bee Broodnest
The core of the bee hive's activity centers around the broodnest. The queen typically lays eggs in a spiral pattern in the broodnest, starting from the center and working her way out. As she moves around the comb the queen pokes her head into cells for inspection. If a cell seems promising she'll go into the cell up to her shoulders, turning around and inserting her abdomen to lay an egg against the back of the cell if it's just right.
The central worker brood is covered with tan-colored wax cappings (capped by adult workers nine days into development). The cappings are slightly raised and roughly textured.
In the middle of the brood, where the queen first began laying eggs, some cappings are cracking open and wiggling antennas are poking through the wax; worker bees are emerging. Over the next half hour or so the bees will chew their way through the caps and begin to poke their heads through, With a final push, a whole bee will pop out ready to begin house duties.
Circling around the periphery of the capped brood are larvae in various stages of development, the largest of which are adjacent to the capped brood in the center. The smallest (youngest) of the larvae are barely visible; the biggest fill the cell from side to side. The larvae resemble white shrimp curled.
If you came back in a few days from the larvae stage, you'd find the cells in the center where bees had emerged filled with eggs, and the entire process starting over, with the size of the active broodnest expanding and contracting with the season and the needs of the colony.
If there are drone cells, they will tend to be at the edges of the frame. Drone cells are bigger then worker cells and capped drone brood is bullet shaped, protruding out from the comb conspicuously.
