Larvae/Pupae Turfed Out?!?

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malawi2854

House Bee
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
205
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0
Location
Tonbridge, Kent
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
5
Hello,

My hive lives at my parents house - and I had a phone call from them today to say that they visited the hive, and found a collection of 6 well-developed larvae on the "landing board" of the hive (obviously dead!).

I've never heard of this before - and certainly none of my books mentioned it! Can someone enlighten me as to what has happened, and why? (I appreciate not seeing the hive, that'll be difficult - but guesses are fine with me at present!).

They collected the turfed out larvae up, so I could see them when I can get over there, and they went back later, and no more had appeared. Are these ones that have died in the cells, and therefore been evicted?

I had a look at the hive (a new nuc - only been in my hive a week) last week, and all seemed well - a couple of queen cells, but I am expecting they will have been torn down by now, as they have plenty of room now (they were a bit squished in their nuc box).

I will be opening it up tomorrow, to feed and check things over - is there anything in particular I should look for, considering this course of events?

My dad used to be a beekeeper, and can't recall his ever having done it? :eek:
 
hygenic behaviour - chucking out dead larvae
 
Mine did that just a few days after getting them, it was suggested that they could be hungry as the weather was so bad, the weather has improved and they now seem ok.
try a 1-1 syrup feed?
 
Take the positive, the larvae 'have' been chucked out, the colony has the underlying strength and numbers to maintain good housekeeping
 
Have they plenty of stores? why did you not get rid of the queen cells.
 
Could be wax moth.

Taken from 'At the hive entrance' By H.Storch

The wax moth larvae will hinder the development of the brood, forcing it to move upwards to the top of the cells, making it impossible for the bees to seal the cells. Also known as bald brood and is often removed from the cells by the bees
 
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Have they plenty of stores? why did you not get rid of the queen cells.

Yes, their stores were/are good - although they were a nuc only installed last weekend, and the weather hasn't been brilliant around here - they've had 2kg of sugar mixed into water (turns out that didn't last as long as I'd thought it would!).

Anyway - I opened them up today, and given the slightly better weather today, I was able to have a proper look through the whole colony - all seems well, I didn't see the queen, but saw larvae curled up in the cells, and eggs pointing up, which indicates the queen is around.

The queen cells are gone, as hoped - I am putting this down to them being packed in their nuc box so tight, and then spending 24 hours in my hive, with very little room to expand. They now have PLENTY of room, and seem to be spreading out well. They've just started moving onto one of the new frames I gave them, and started to fill it with pollen.

I've no idea what the story was with the turfed out larvae - I've decided to err on the side of positivity for the time being at least!

Thanks everyone for your help. :hurray:
 
Perhaps you have the Holy Grail of bees? Hygienic bees that throw out diseased pupae or ones with a heavy varroa load.
 
Diploid drone larvea?!?

Sorry - I've never even heard of that! I've just tried looking it up online - is it something to do with "thelytoky"?

Thanks!
 
Nice to hear of a positive outcome - the dead larvae could have been damaged in transit then simply removed by your good bees
 
Bit of a potential update on this today - went and inspected the hive again - and think I might have an answer to the larvae being chucked out.

When I got there, there were 2 more dead larvae that had been chucked out - one on the landing board, being consumed by another bee, from the looks of it - the other in the grass, being carried off piece by piece by ants (that's recycling for you!)

Anyway - The nuc was bought on National frames, but I have a 14x12 hive, so am in the process of trying to move them onto 14x12's - the chap I've spoken to at my local association said that it wouldn't be a problem having National frames in there, and it would give me an opportunity to let them build drone comb down there, which I could lop off when capped, to control varroa (which initial reports appear to indicate the nuc doesn't have... yet.)

Anyway - so there are 5 National frames, and 4 14x12 frames in there now - and sure enough, there is comb on the bottom of the National frames.
In inspecting this today, and I believe with the hot weather, the drone comb was quite fragile, and I knocked one lump off. This disloged a selection of drone larvae into the bottom of the hive. Later, I found another piece about 3" square sitting on the bottom of the hive, so I removed that too.

Now, I'm beginning to think that maybe I damaged some of the drone comb last time I looked at them, and the dead larvae outside where simply the bees clearing up after me?
 
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