Drone Brood, Pollen stores, and Plantain

We are no longer feeding pollen patties to our bees since they are bringing a lot in from the local trees. Pretty soon they will be bringing in dandelion and Alaska Wild Rose.

Here is what stored pollen cells look like:

DRONE BROOD:
I don't remove drone brood unless it is more than 8-12 drone cells in one area of the comb. Here are some photos with explanations regarding drone comb:

Drone pupa is convex (it looks like Kix cereal).

This is (female) worker pupa at the bottom, left and there are two (male) drone cells at the top left. These are "drawn-out" taller to allow more space in the cell for the larger drone brood.

PLANTAIN WEED can reduce reactions to bee stings. I have seen it draw the redness and swelling right out of an area recently stung by honeybees. What I do is chew a leaf until my saliva begins breaking it down. Then I put it on the area of the sting and put a piece of tape or a Band-aid over the plantain. This weed grows all over the place like dandelions.