[sparks2142]

Hey all! Was helping a friend with an inspection today, and saw what appeared to be workers uncapping and pulling pupae from the brood! The pupa in one cell was almost fully formed, but still white and the girls were pulling it out. Other cells seemed to be opened prematurely also.
We did notice more SHB than the last inspection... is this related to SHB infection or something else??

Thanks!!

 

[TXbeekeeper]

you could have a VSH queen. They tend to do what you described when the larva are infected with varroa. If so, it's a good thing.

 

[MikeJ]

I believe they will also do this if they do not have enough stores to keep the brood fed. If they are short of pollen and/or honey they will pull them - I believe.

Mike

 

[hipbee]

my observation hive started doing the same thing about a week before they obsconded, I couldent see any signs of SHB looking through the glass but after they obsconded I opened it up and SHB and beetle larva were crawling out of every little crack. those little black ba####ds are the most disgusting problem, I am now trying every trick in the trade to prevent that from happening again. do a search on this site and start trying to get rid of SHB before you have to go find your bees in a tree somewhere