In a message dated 96-08-26 15:32:40 EDT,  Jim Moore
<[log in to unmask]>:
 
<<     While inspecting my weakest hive, a small swarm I'm
 nursing along, I encountered something I have never seen
 before (during this my first year of beekeeping). There were a
 number of worker cells among capped brood that were uncapped.
 The pupae were well developed with the bodies still white and
 the eyes a light purple. It was strange seeing the white
 bodies with the purple eyes staring out of the comb.
 
         Other factors that might be relevant. This hive has a
 low level of varroa mites. I encountered and destroyed two
 large wax moth caterpillars. My guess is that the moth
 caterpillars ate the caps.
 
         (A side note relating to a previous post.  The
 caterpillar feces found in some of cells I inspected look like
 coffee grounds.)
 
         Anyone have and knowledge or ideas about the cause of
 the uncapped pupae. >>
 
 
    The wax worms are illustrative of the weakness of the hive.
 
     The uncapped pupae are usually called "bald brood."   I have asked a
number of bee experts about it, and usually they attribute it to virus.  I
see bald brood in the spring which usually dies late in development, and
could be related to ti-ti or jassamine bloom, which *may* be poisonous.  This
dead brood has a bluish or purplish color, and beekeepers call it "blue
brood."
 
    I see an occasional case of bald brood during the remainder of the year,
and the hives with it are usually weak, sour smelling, with a lot of dark
greasy bees, and dark wet or greasy looking brood wax cappings.
 
    My normal procedure is:  If it is early in the season, I requeen.  This
usually takes care of the problem.  If it is late, I kill the queen, and
combine it with a good colony.
 
    Lately, I have seen several colonies that have quite a bit of bald brood.
 In each case they have a fairly severe infestation of varroa mites.  If the
bald brood is indeed a virus, perhaps this is something that has been
vectored by the mites.  In the literature available to me, I have not seen
any specific reference to bald brood being a direct cause of mite
infestation.
 
     There is another thing which puzzles me.  Each of these uncapped pupae
is small-sized (stunted) with, from a couple to over a hundred, tiny specks
on its abdomen.  My suspicion is that it is the egg of something which
parasitizes the brood, something like the caterpillar which you see with
attatched wasp eggs.  These specks are very tiny, so it is unlikely that they
are varroa eggs.  According to Morse (Honey Bee Pests, Preditors & Diseases)
the varroa eggs are about a third the size of the adult females, so these
"eggs" aren't even in the running.  I have not seen and identified varroa
eggs, though I have seen the nymphs.  These "eggs" are extremely tiny,
smaller than a period of newspaper type in width, elongated to perhaps the
same or slightly more in length.
 
   Another possibility comes to mind, that these are varroa mite droppings.
 However, I have heard that these are whitish in color.  Furthermore these
black specks seem to be attatched directly to the abdomens, not just randomly
placed. Wax worm droppings are much larger.
 
     I can see that I'm going to have to put a microscope into my budget for
next year.
I've checked both drone and worker brood, and there seems to be no
preference, both are affected.  I have not seen this in strong hives, but
then I don't normally examine a strong hive (to see what's wrong).
 
     I suspect my cases are very similar to yours.  It is clear that these
are sick bees, and this late in the season, I would not give them much hope.
 I am going to do some experimenting with some of them, to see what I can
observe and learn.  Otherwise, I'll give them Apistan, and some time to
reduce infestation, then kill queens and join them with good. strong hives.
 
     We'd love to hear comments from others.
 
    Ha!  I just recalled that I took some pics last year of some drone larvae
with similar attatched "eggs."  I looked them up.  I am going to put one on
the web page as       http://users.aol.com/pollinator/mystery.htm          if
someone wants to look and comment.  I cannot get the resolution I'd like, and
these cases from last year are somewhat larger in size that the ones I've
seen lately.
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554
 
Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html