# Headless bees



## space bee (Jan 16, 2006)

I made use of the fairly mild weather and checked on my tbh today. Scooped out a bunch of dead bees and noticed that quite a few of them are missing their heads. Could the mouse I discovered in there about 2 weeks ago (and ended up accidentally killing) be the cause of this? Any other possibilities? I did see some very much alive bees and they still have stores, but I only peaked between a few bars so as not to chill them too much. Just wondering about the missing heads...


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## Dinor (Mar 6, 2007)

I have seen wasps do this.


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## Hobie (Jun 1, 2006)

I do not know, but do maybe ants do this? I noticed ants milling about my hives during last week's warm spell. Haven't seen a wasp in months.


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

Could be cause by:

1) Normally, when there is a shortage of food (in colony), larvae are removed or consumed by the adult bees. 
How much honey does hive have?

2) UNCAPPED PUPAE sometimes called 'Bald Headed Brood', could be because they are hygienic bees doing their job. You may observe exposed white- and purple-eyed pupae being uncapped, and the pupa may or may not be chewed out in the process by bees exhibiting the genetic trait called Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH).
How is the "mite load" of this hive?


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

Oops!

Re-read original post (Scooped out a bunch of dead bees) and now guess my previous post does not apply


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

I vote for the mouse, unless the damage was done awhile ago and just not noticed. You shouldn't of had wasp problems for sometime. But either mouse or wasp will give you dead bees like this.


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