Drone larvae on landing board?

[thedozzer]

Our bees seem to be doing OK and have plenty of stores and had lots of BIAS the last time we looked (2 weeks ago) and they have nearly drawn out a whole supper of new frames since then, even in the cold weather.

But most mornings there seems to be drone larvae dragged out onto the landing board, they are white apart from the eyes that are dark and look to have been chewed out of their cell, we did get a few workers now and then, but it is generally drone larvae that the girls pick on now?

Im just a bit confused as they have food, they have space, they look to be healthy and there are plenty of healthy fat lads wandering around on the frames.

If the weather is warm enough we will do another inspection this weekend but is there anything we should be looking for.

 

[mjt68]

What's your mite count?

 

[Repwoc]

Do the larvae have varroa mites on them?

 

[thedozzer]

What's your mite count?

Hi MJT we don't get more than 1 or 2 a week! even when we put 2 apivar strips in last autumn they didn't drop more than about 8 in a day? and that was in the beginning, we left them in for 6 weeks and had nothing by week 3, and as per lots of good advice on here we Vaselined the inspection board so they couldn't crawl off.

Do the larvae have varroa mites on them?

Hi Repwoc Not that i have seen but it looks like they are throwing them out during the night and had a good chew on the abdomen/thorax area, if there are any there tomorrow will have a closer look and take a pic if i can.

 

[Poly Hive]

I would suspect low night time temps and the bees dumping the larvae as they are a drain on resources.

PH

 

[thedozzer]

I would suspect low night time temps and the bees dumping the larvae as they are a drain on resources.

PH

Hi PH Did wonder that, maybe they think they have enough lazy scroungers getting in the way of the entrance.
They are finding plenty of forage & pollen and they are in a Masi poly hive with an extra 50mm of celotex in the roof? so they don't look short of stores or warmth.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Sounds familiar. I'm seeing this. Landing board of underfloor entrance.
OAD before Christmas and less than 1 varroa/day at start of February.
Best looking colony I have on first inspection.

. . . . Ben

 

[Ian123]

Sometimes found after inspections, often broken when lifting frames

 

[Parsonage Bees]

The last time I looked through them was 2 weeks ago but I know what you mean. They often put drone brood between frames.
There is a post by masterBK elsewhere that he/she has a colony that does this each year. It's been cold overnight and maybe drone brood on the outside of the nest dies off. There was more drone in this colony than any other. Not too worried.

. . . . Ben

 

[thedozzer]

Sometimes found after inspections, often broken when lifting frames

Thanks for that pointer Ian, never thought about the caps being higher and more prone to bruising, we haven't inspected for 3 weeks as NE wind has kept temps to low.

The last time I looked through them was 2 weeks ago but I know what you mean. They often put drone brood between frames.
There is a post by masterBK elsewhere that he/she has a colony that does this each year. It's been cold overnight and maybe drone brood on the outside of the nest dies off. There was more drone in this colony than any other. Not too worried.
. . . . Ben

Hi Ben
I think masterBK & PH are right, they had quite a few drones on the frames so they are culling the excess, im glad in not a drone!!

 

[Ian123]

Maybe not so much bruised when lifted but often broken on brace comb and the like between boxes or bottom of frames