Glenviewbee
House Bee
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2012
- Messages
- 232
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- West Cornwall
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
Our SBI came to have a check through my colonies today - in connection with an AFB outbreak down in this neck of the woods. She was very thorough and helpful, plus was quite happy that there were no 'nasties' going on which was a relief 
When looking at one of the colonies there was a bit of a
moment when she came across a patch of sealed brood that looked 'odd' in her view. On scraping back the cap the pupa looked relatively well developed but dead 
She tried some other cells from the same area and there were pupae that were earlier in development stage but again, in her view, not healthy. The matchstick came out but no ropey results.
The other strange thing about that colony was that there were plenty of eggs and sealed brood, but no unsealed brood....
Her evaluation was that there might be an environmental explanation - maybe some fungicide product was brought back by the bees and fed to the brood at one time point - with this result. We do have potato crops and arable crops in the immediate surroundings and there has been spraying in the recent past.
She has advised keeping an eye on the colony and making a particular point of seeing what what in 2 weeks time, to see what has happened to the current eggs
1 of my other colonies is currently waiting for the new queen to get going so no brood there, another has only had a laying queen for 8 days so no equivalent brood situation and the other colony, that does have a laying queen, did not show any issues.
Anybody else experienced this eggs, no unsealed brood, sealed brood situation?
When looking at one of the colonies there was a bit of a
moment when she came across a patch of sealed brood that looked 'odd' in her view. On scraping back the cap the pupa looked relatively well developed but dead She tried some other cells from the same area and there were pupae that were earlier in development stage but again, in her view, not healthy. The matchstick came out but no ropey results.The other strange thing about that colony was that there were plenty of eggs and sealed brood, but no unsealed brood....
Her evaluation was that there might be an environmental explanation - maybe some fungicide product was brought back by the bees and fed to the brood at one time point - with this result. We do have potato crops and arable crops in the immediate surroundings and there has been spraying in the recent past.
She has advised keeping an eye on the colony and making a particular point of seeing what what in 2 weeks time, to see what has happened to the current eggs
1 of my other colonies is currently waiting for the new queen to get going so no brood there, another has only had a laying queen for 8 days so no equivalent brood situation and the other colony, that does have a laying queen, did not show any issues.
Anybody else experienced this eggs, no unsealed brood, sealed brood situation?
