# What is this?



## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

They look like partially developed pupae of the honey bee. Did you go into the hive lately for inspection? Sometimes brood comb can be inadvertently broken; the pupae exposed and the house or caretaker bees will remove them and take them out of the hive. It might also be some hygenic behavior of the bees that are removing dead or diseased brood.


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## New Bee (Nov 3, 2010)

Haven't touched the brood box since the swarm was put into it in October. so it might be the latter. 

Could robbing bees damage brood comb?


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

I haven't had a lot of experience with robbing to know if that would cause brood to be damaged and be removed.

It could be the weather; either chilled brood or weather that has been too hot [in Australia ?] for the bees to cool the hive without adequate ventilation in some parts of the brood nest. I don't have my hives where I can observe them all the time, but I see them take out pupae or larvae after inspections. There have been a few times when I have seen partially developed brood left on the landing board before I started my inspections though.

I don't think it's anything to worry about for now.


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## Axtmann (Dec 29, 2002)

To me it is a typically virus infection. Get rid of the mites and eventually the symptoms disappear.


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## PCM (Sep 18, 2007)

Is that black spot a mite ? Sorry I don't have my glasses.

PCM


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

Don't know for sure, but apparently varroa mites *have not* been found in Australia,...yet. I suppose it could be virus anyway.


_"USDA ARS scientists Dr. John Harbo and Dr. Jeffrey Harris at the Honey Bee Breeding Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have defined and tested a trait of the honeybee which appeared to suppress mite reproduction (SMR). Recently it has been better defined as "varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH)." This is a form of behavior where adult bees remove pupae that have reproductive mites but do not disturb pupae that have mites that produce no progeny." > http://www.beebehavior.com/bee_enemies.php_

It probably wouldn't hurt to do a sugar roll test now and then.

_"The mite occurs in beekeeping countries throughout the world but has not been detected in Australia. There are several surveillance projects for early detection of an incursion of varroa at and near shipping ports. Beekeepers are encouraged to test their own hives for varroa using the simple sugar shake (or roll) test described below." > February 2010:_
_http://new.dpi.vic.gov.au/notes/agg/bees--and--wasps/ag000-sugar-shake-test-detection-of-varroa-mite_


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## jrbbees (Apr 4, 2010)

Ok! What is the 'roll' test. 

Please don't tell me to roll the hive over 6 times!:doh:


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

It's springtime over there, correct?
Your picture shows a partly matured bee pupae.

Have you applied any kind of 'treatments' to your hive lately? Some treatments can effect developing brood, which then die and are removed from the hive. Just a thought.


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## New Bee (Nov 3, 2010)

It's very nearly summer here - but really there is very little difference between late spring (Oct/Nov) and early summer (Dec/Jan). I mean you may get hot periods followed by cooler ones, humidity and storms and dry spells where the a/c does not have any water dripping out of it. Right now we are in a La Niña period and it is much more humid than the last few years.

We have had some really quite hot days this month and the bees have been bearding even though the hives are in partial shade for most of the day and protected from the sun in the afternoons. I have now installed migratory lids with a second entrance so this should improve ventilation.

I have not used any treatments whatsoever.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Looking at that pupa...doesn't the top photo look like it might be a drone? Big thorax and it looks like the remnants of drone eyes?


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## New Bee (Nov 3, 2010)

Someone I am in email correspondence with said I should check for AFB.

Has anyone got any thoughts/experience with the early stages in a hive?

This site http://afb.org.nz/symptons has some clues but the couple of corpses that I intercepted today did not look worse than the one in the images from yesterday. No bad odor either.


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

Concerning AFB._ "Has anyone got any thoughts/experience with the early stages in a hive?"_

I don't, but do have these thoughts. The queen can lay anywhere from 1000 to 2000 eggs a day, so eventually there is a lot of brood in various stages of developement. Does every egg layed grow successfully into an adult bee? For whatever reason, can something go wrong? A pest, disease, a genetic defect [white-eyed drone] from inbreeding? The metamorphosis from larvae to pupae is a complicated process! 

Seeing a few pupae on the landing board or being carried away, may be just the normal hygienic behavior of the bees. It is one reason why they are a successful insect.
If 6-10 or more larvae or pupae are seen everyday, that might be a reason to be concerned. [It could even be a positive thing?] Again, I can't watch my hives everyday and keep a tally of what is going on around the hives.


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## New Bee (Nov 3, 2010)

Thanks to all who responded.

I did get my mentor to come and have a gander and we looked at the outside of the hive and he thought that everything was OK. The plan was that we would have a look at the brood box the next morning but it was pouring with rain then and since it has been showery all the time so we have not had any chance to do that job.

In any event the bees seem to have stopped throwing out carcases in the last day and a half.


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