[Dieseltrac]

I have a hive where the bees are dragging out undeveloped bees. Why would they be doing this? Is this a sign that there is something wrong with the colony?

 

[BEES4U]

It's time for you to light up your smoker, put on your protective gear and do an inside inspection .
Please provide photos too.

Good luck,
Ernie

 

[brooksbeefarm]

What breed of bees do you have? this can be a trait of some of the hygienic breed of bees. They are supposed to be able to detect if the brood is infected and will toss it out. Jack

 

[Dieseltrac]

The Breed of bee is Italian; I was thinking the same thing that they are taking out infected or other wise bad brood. I will do an inspection on Friday as some of the brood should start to emerge at that time.

 

[blueskybeesupply]

Temperature here (we're south of you) was 52 degrees on Monday night, still cool (59 last night). You probably have some chilled brood on the outside edges, as it was so warm and humid the last week or so and your Italians were brooding up fast.

That's why I keep debris trays in until July/August in SBB's, because cool/moist nights can hurt your brooding still (not that you had your tray out).

 

[Omie]

I have a hive where the bees are dragging out undeveloped bees. Why would they be doing this? Is this a sign that there is something wrong with the colony?

Hi Diesel,
Remember I am about 15 minutes from you. Our weather has been pretty nice for bees this past month.
Have you recently treated your bees for anything? Formic acid, etc?
Some treatments can kill a portion of the brood and then the bees clean out the dead.
Did you put anything in your hive recently or do mite or disease treatments?
Have you moved brood frames around recently?

How many dumped pupae are we talking about?, and is it only from one hive but not the other hive(s)? I forget how many hives you have...

 

[Dieseltrac]

I did not do any treatments. It was only about a handfull or so but it had me worried when I first noticed. I'm running 3 hives now and that was the only hive that had any issues so far that I can see. I could have been brood chill.

 

[Omie]

I did not do any treatments. It was only about a handfull or so but it had me worried when I first noticed. I'm running 3 hives now and that was the only hive that had any issues so far that I can see. I could have been brood chill.

A handful shouldn't be a big worry, yes, they might have been chilled in one spot or something.
If it stops then no need to worry. And i think seeing an occasional pupae tossed out is normal- not every pupae comes out perfect and the ones that don't make it get cleaned out. Keep your eye out for newly hatched bees with deformed wings though, alive or dead. Do you plan on checking for varroa mite levels?
Cool that you have 3 hives now. I have two and they are building up steadily from the nucs I got at the end of April.

 

[bjerm2]

There is another reason, is there a low in the honey flow? They will take out brood too if they are not bringing enough honey or pollen.
Dan

 

[Omie]

There is another reason, is there a low in the honey flow? They will take out brood too if they are not bringing enough honey or pollen.
Dan

I believe nectar and pollen is abundant in our area right now.

 

[Countryboy]

All you will get is guesses until you do an actual inspection.

Is it chalkbrood? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEb7l-3R6Ng

 

[Dieseltrac]

The utube video looks a lot like what’s going on with my hive. I did notice that there is more brood being thrown out. I have to wait till Friday when the weather gets nice to take a look inside the hive. So will the queen have to be replaced in this hive or will she eventually get in to a groove and start laying a good brood cycle? Should I take her out and kill her and let them raise their own? Or can I still order queens from some where? I have seen this before in the past with only a hand full of bees but there is like 20 or 40 of them now and this has me worried.

 

[Omie]

I have seen this before in the past with only a hand full of bees but there is like 20 or 40 of them now and this has me worried.

Ok, that's definitely something going on then. Are the pupae kind of dried with chalky white parts? Or just plump fresh looking white pupae with dark eyes?

Are you feeding anything?

 

[Billy Y.]

if not chalkbrood you might check for mites

 

[Dieseltrac]

The brood looked a bit soft and gooey but tasted kind of sweet, na only kidding about the taste part but I did see some black spots on them. I am feeding that hive sugar water. This was a new package that I started this year; May 22 on perco frames with no foundation drawn. I’ll try to get some pictures today and post them but I’ll have to wait to get into the hive as the weather is still a bit chilly to open it up.

 

[Countryboy]

Chalkbrood will sometimes clear up once they get a good nectar flow going.

It's up to you if you want to replace the queen or not, if it really is chalkbrood.

 

[beedeetee]

If the brood is soft and gooey, it is definitely not chalkbrood.

 

[HEATHERnRye]

One of my hives has been exhibiting the same behavior.

We picked up mites sometime this spring and they got pretty bad as I had some other issues with the hive (moisture and cold) that killed off a lot of bees. Once I got that straight we had to requeen so I installed a Hygienic queen. There was almost a month time frame between when the old queen died and I put a new one in. This time frame should have been enough to interrupt the mites right?

After installing the new queen, we got the brood we were supposed to get and we also started getting a lot of dead pupa being taken out of the hive. I believe mites are the cause. The bees are rooting out the infected pupa and carrying them out of the hive. From what I understand, this is desirable behavior. They are still producing honey, brood, and drawing out the top super so I have to assume they are working well.