Joe replying: Looks in your pic like honeybee pupa exoskeletons and large bee parts is evidence of ‘pulling and discarding’ of diseased pupa. Which as I hypothesize may somehow be related to, but may also be separate from the trait of ‘chewing and reabsorbing’ diseased pupa, as opposed to discarding the pupa (as I stated in my reply to Michael I state that some beekeepers report chewing out of worker brood and others occasionally report the brood being discarded). Reply: Okay, in following the discussion you are having may I interject another thought to add to the pot to ponder. Bees though insects are also animals and do have brains, and like other animals do get pressed for work having to make the best of short-time frames for accomplishing tasks to keep up with mother nature. There are slow moving years and fast moving years for lack of other words. Take the years when spring is coming on fast and plants are starting to bloom, and you find then bees quickly chewing out frames of granulated honey to make room for expansion of broodnest, vs those years when spring is coming on slow and they are having to save and use every ounce of food they have. They seem to know when to go into a fast track mode vs a slower paced one. Why wouldn't this then be similar to the brood chewing out/down variances you are describing, depending upon the needs of the individual hive it is occuring within, knowing that not all hives work at the same pace for spring buildup or other broodnest turnovers at other times of the active beekeeping year? Just like granulated honey chewing out seen in some years vs not in others. Intensive broodnest chewing and cleansing out in some years and not in others. Why not same scenario in pupae chewing out, or even secondary diseases too for that matter? A slow mode and a fast mode depending upon the time frame at hand, besides the amount of workers available, and strong hive vs weaker hive? LIke I said all animals do think and I think bees think more then many give them credit for................. Respectfully submitted, Dee A. Lusby Small Cell Commercial Beekeeper Moyza, Arizona http://groups.yahoo.com/group/organicbeekeepers/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail (http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/) -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---