Weird wobbly cappings + bald brood

[BeekeeperDan]

I've seen bald brood before but this is uneven and irregular. This is a thriving colony I removed from inside a roof a few weeks ago. It's been fed but not yet treated with MAQS as had to order some more and waiting for them to arrive. I can see very little wing damage and, obviously, the break in brood rearing will have knocked mite levels down a bit but I always treat bees in quarantine before returning to my apiary. They are superseding and have raised areasonable sealed queen cell. I am tempted to leave this to hatch and see if this is a genetic trait by assessing the brood of the new queen. I could easily requeen but i am very curious as never seen it before. All brood is a lovely pearly white, no obvious virus load and I can see no scales in the cells. No ropey brood or weird smells. Please give me your thoughts?

I've seen bald brood before but this is uneven and irregular. This is a thriving colony I removed from inside a roof a few weeks ago. It's been fed but not yet treated with MAQS as had to order some more and waiting for them to arrive. I can see very little wing damage and, obviously, the break in brood rearing will have knocked mite levels down a bit but I always treat bees in quarantine before returning to my apiary. They are superseding and have raised areasonable sealed queen cell. I am tempted to leave this to hatch and see if this is a genetic trait by assessing the brood of the new queen. I could easily requeen but i am very curious as never seen it before. All brood is a lovely pearly white, no obvious virus load and I can see no scales in the cells. No ropey brood or weird smells. Please give me your thoughts?

 

[BeekeeperDan]

So, I can't post pictures until I have ten posts for some stupid reason. Bear with me...

 

[BeekeeperDan]

Post 4...

 

[BeekeeperDan]

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[BeekeeperDan]

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[BeekeeperDan]

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[BeekeeperDan]

Post 7... I have to wait 30seconds between posts too, this is really offputting for a new member!

 

[BeekeeperDan]

Post 8... The photos will be coming in post 11, I promise!

 

[BeekeeperDan]

Post 9...

 

[BeekeeperDan]

Post 10... Nearly there, thanks for your patience!

 

[BeekeeperDan]

I can now edit my first post and add photos there so I have.

 

[BeekeeperDan]

Is she running out of sperm and so laying unfertilised eggs randomly amongst fertilised? It could explain why some cappings are raised much higher than their neighbours. Clearly there is a bad case of bald brood too. What is most interesting is that the combs removed from the roof did not show any signs of this, they were perfect evenly capped and not bald at all!

 

[deemann1]

VSH ?varroa sensitive hygiene

 

[Hachi]

I cant see any pictures

 

[Beecat]

I can't help out, but wow, stunning photography!

 

[Jafer2]

any bees have the shakes or balding? could be advanced stage of cbpv that has got to the brood?

 

[BeekeeperDan]

Jafer2
Nope, no shaky bees, balding, dark or greasey bees but it's good thinking. The brood actually seem to be healthy, I dug a few out. I didn't see any bees "hatching" but that could just bee due to the time it's been since they were given fresh combs after being bee-vacced out of the roof. They seem to be the picture of health apart from the weird texture to the comb and the bald brood. I've seen cbpv before, but not without a mite infestation. It's odd.


Beecat,
I love the avatar! Thanks, iphone 6 camera. I bought it second hand to replace an iphone 5 and the difference in picture quality is phenomenal!


Hachi
The photos are on the first post, turns out I could edit it to add photos after I had made my ten posts.


Thanks for replies, folks, do let me know if you have any other ideas please!
Dan

 

[BeekeeperDan]

VSH ?varroa sensitive hygiene

Good thinking deemann1. I bought some hygienic queens last year or the year before from the University of Sussex (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lasi/sussexplan/hygienicbees) and they interbred with my mongrels and I bred from the queens they sent. I have seen much more "pepperpot" brood in the hives in that apiary since then and far fewer mites and I suspect this is due to inherited hygienic trates. These, however, are bees I took from more than 3 miles from that apiary. Could be a factor in the pepperpot, I think, but doesn't account for the weird texture. Cheers, Dan

 

[Eyeman]

As they are uncapping the brood it's not due to the genetic form of bald brood which I understand the brood isn't capped.
With hygienic behaviour don't they chew and remove the pupae? You should see partly removed pupae and lots of empty cells with some remains under the OMF.
I want one of those phones- the detail in those pics is excellent.

 

[Finman]

.
Ordinary bees do holes to cappings when they have too much mites, and they fill floor with dead pupae.