From: "Bob Harrison"  " Have you ever tested your bees for hygienic behavior
by freezing a section of
> comb (to kill brood) and seeing the amount of time needed to remove the
dead
> brood (24 or 48 hours)?"

Fascinating ...but Bob has gone off track here.  He is suggesting testing
the ability of small cell bees to remove DEAD brood.  But if small cells
bees are removing varroa affected pupae , those are still LIVE - so a
different behavoiur is involved.  Surely what might be happening is the
varroa 'irritate' the larvae at the stage they are still moving and spinning
their cocoons, causing the larvae to behave rather like EFB affected larvae
that are starving and twisting about.  If there is a form of hygenic
behaviour which causes  such larvae to be ejected (and there is , yes?),
then the same behaviour could cause ejection of the varroa filled cells.
Perhaps small cells increase the distress of the larvae simply because of
the mites are pressed harder against the larvae in a smaller cell.

Robin Dartington

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