Bees not hatching and dead in cells

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Joined
Mar 17, 2014
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Location
Hertfordshire
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Hi All, I have a problem with one of my hives the new queen which is bred from a queen cell has laid a little but now stopped plus the eggs that she did lay are not hatching there I s no smell or gooey substance in cells so I am presuming it is varroa infestation and not foul brood but I have done a mite drop count and there does mot seem to be a large count.

The hive is emptying out

Please can some advise what it could be I am about to google it myself now.
 
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Find somebody experienced locally to check them for brood disease. If you can't find somebody quickly, contact your local bee inspector, https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/public/Contacts/contacts.cfm

Add: Your first version of the above mentioned "sunken" and larvae dying in the cells. That's usually associated with foul broods. If you're not sure what you're seeing, you need somebody with more experience. If it's real disease, they're happy for the early notification, if it's a false alarm, they're relieved it's not something more serious. Either way, better to know than struggle on.
 
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Is the queen almost on her own?

Is this a problem of eggs not hatching or larvae not emerging? If larvae, are they dying before capping or under the cappings. Do the cappings look sunken?

Don't presume, get help as above.
 
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NHBKA had a talk from Peter Folge (one of the SBIs who covers Herts) last year - nice friendly approachable chap and knows his stuff

I'll pm you his details (from Beebase)
 
Hi Aledrinker,
Since you mentioned eggs not hatching out I had the same prob and gave her two weeks! Big.... Darren gave her all summer and she did not turn good. Duff queen!
Sorry just seen dead in cells... have they got enough stores? Or do you mean dead in capped cells?
 
She has a point - what is the stores situation like. if they are slowly starving it would look like the hive is 'emtying out' before the head in cells tells you they're seriously short of food
 
After googling it they are not sunken so hopefully that's a good sign but will get them checked out.
Well, cell cappings are naturally slightly convex. If they are flat then they must be considered to be sunken.
With afb the cell contents become gooey at a certain stage, similarly the ropiness only occurs at a certain stage of decomposition.

Scale, can be hard to see is the final stage of decomposition.

Ruary
 
PMS

ps. Aled Rinker is a seriously joyful name!
 

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