# halfway hatched dead bees



## Gibbus (Apr 22, 2009)

This is my first year, so forgive me if this has an obvious answer - I have recently figured out my hive is queenless, -no eggs, larva, queen (that I can see) or honey, and only a few capped brood-, but the capped brood has dead bees in them halfway through emerging. So I have all these bees that look like they died _while_ hatching. Is this symptomatic of a disease or merely a condition that will not affect a stronger hive if I combine? I dont want to contaminate my stronger hive. Thanks


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## oldenglish (Oct 22, 2008)

I know that hives with Varroa will see a lot of this, the mite weakens the brood to the point that it cannot emerge fully and dies in the attempt.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

...the bees are starving, and aren't packing enough food into the cells before capping, and can't feed the emerging brood to help them. if they won't take feed, suspect nosema ceranae.

deknow


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

Gibbus . . .

Get someone to look at your hives. Do NOT combine this colony w/ another.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Another reason brood may be able to begin emerging but fail to complete the process is wax moth infestation, the wax moth larvae burrow through the comb containing gestating pupae and get their webs wrapped around the young bee pupae, preventing them from emerging once they finish maturing. It is a very sad way to lose young bees - the brood looks perfectly fine at the capping level but down near the comb midrib there is trouble and you don't find out about it until emergence time.


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