Brood Chamber
Lexikon
The brood chamber is the area of a hive where the colony's actual nest is located: this is where the queen lays her eggs, where larvae grow up, and where the bees store pollen and part of their reserves in the immediate vicinity of the brood.
The brood chamber is the area of a hive where the colony's actual nest is located: this is where the queen lays her eggs, where larvae grow up, and where the bees store pollen and part of their reserves in the immediate vicinity of the brood. In modern box hives, the brood chamber usually forms the bottom one or two boxes, with the honey super sitting above it.
The clear separation of brood chamber and honey super is of great importance for everyday work. Only if the beekeeper knows where eggs, open brood, and capped brood are located can he correctly assess the state of the colony, recognize swarming mood, or treat against the varroa mite in a targeted way. Many management styles therefore use a queen excluder between the brood chamber and the honey super, which lets worker bees through but stops the larger queen from moving up into the honey super.
A common misconception among beginners is the idea that the brood chamber has to stay permanently the same fixed size. In fact, its extent adapts considerably over the course of the year: in spring it grows with colony strength, and in late summer it is reduced again by contracting the nest, so that the colony can form its winter cluster on a manageable area.