# Hygenic behavior or sign of trouble?



## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

I have VSH queens and those hives often have pupae of different ages discarded in front of the hive. I would suspect it is hygienic behavior. G


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Probably means they are culling capped brood they detect as having mites in the cell. Pick a method of assessing the mite levels. Mite fall may not be high on a sticky board but brood in cells could be well infested. I would be pulling drone brood to check for mties. VSH bees may not uncap drone brood.


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## Notapro (Dec 16, 2014)

Right now they don't have any drone brood. It was a relatively small swarm that moved in a month ago on 2/23.


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## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

crofter said:


> Probably means they are culling capped brood they detect as having mites in the cell. Pick a method of assessing the mite levels. Mite fall may not be high on a sticky board but brood in cells could be well infested. I would be pulling drone brood to check for mties. VSH bees may not uncap drone brood.


Mine do. Both worker and drone. G


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

Mine do too.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

If the mite levels are high enough and the bees strong on this behavior they will pull nearly all the brood and the population can stand stilll. It depends on how hygenic the bees are. Some are apparently hygienic to a fault. 

If your mite load is light it may be quite concentrated in drone brood. Does it take a certain level of infestation to engage the bees and get them uncapping cells? I had a nuc with heavy mite problem but it seemed mostly the worker cells being emptied. 

I think you still have to assess your mite population to eliminate that as a cause. 3 or 4 larvae here and there being culled does not sound like anything out of the ordinary.


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## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

crofter said:


> I think you still have to assess your mite population to eliminate that as a cause. 3 or 4 larvae here and there being culled does not sound like anything out of the ordinary.


Agree 100%. G


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## Notapro (Dec 16, 2014)

Ok, went out to check the hive again this afternoon. The small swarn i have been talking about does not have any drone brood yet. I am sure some will be coming but none at this time. I pulled 20 worker larvae from two differenit combs and did not see any mites. Doesn't mean they are not there, but there were none on the brood I pulled.

Went to my 5 over 5 that is a split from the one hive I had (before the split and before catching 2 swarms) and they don't have any drone brood yet either. Pulled 20 worker brood and found zero mites again.

Opened up my main hive that has a full frame of drone brood on the outer edge of the brood chamber and pulled 20 drone brood. Again no mites! 

I can see eggs (with my reading glasses on) so I think I should be able to see well enough to spot a mite on the white pupae. I have asked my wife to save me a couple peanut butter jars so i can do the alchohol wash but we have not emptied any yet. I will continue to monitor every couple weeks or so and see how things go.

Thanks for all your input! It helps to have a community to learn from!


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## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

Sounds like a good plan. Good Luck. Enjoy. G


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