About 8-9 years ago, I spent a lot of time watching an observation hive 
that had brood comb built against the glass so you could see inside the 
cell.  The bees were 3 generations from a Russian hybrid queen (the 2nd 
or third year) mated here in my mongrel  survivor yard including 
commercial Italian, Russian and hygienic selected stocks and ferals.  I 
observed a number of behaviors that appeared to be hygienic (tho it took 
conversations with Jamie Ellis and Jennifer Berry to figure some out).  
Cells with varroa got extra attention with workers reach in and working 
the sides and the mites were harassed tho often moved out of reach and 
weren't grabbed.  Some ended up spun into the cocoon.  Cappings were 
built largely of wax collected from adjacent cell tops.  Several times 
most of the cap was later removed leaving a neat oval window; I always 
saw mites in those cells, and in at least one case the workers reached 
in around the cocoon and caught the mite.  Sometimes cells were 
recapped, sometimes not.  All hatched apparently healthy brood (Did I 
mention 'a lot of time?").  Jennifer Berry felt this was a hygienic 
behavior and was later including bald brood in her analyses.

  Another observation was extensive grooming of each other, including a 
behavior soliciting the attention that reminded me of fish cleaning 
stations (angled posture, wings extended, crouched position).  The 
mystery was that varroa mites were usually ignored and the cleaning 
concentrated on the wing bases.  When I asked Jamie Ellis (then at UGA) 
about that, he speculated  that they were working the front spiracles 
where tracheal mites enter and hypothesized that this might help explain 
Russian resistance to tracheal mites.

These days I don't have that kind of time, but should I live so long as 
to retire I'm going back to brood watching.  I believe good old natural 
history run through scientific minds is forever indispensable to 
progress on understanding whole critters.

Carolyn in SC

On 8/1/2013 6:24 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Today I checked, for the second time, on a swarm that I hived a couple 
> of weeks ago.  This time, much of the brood is sealed.  The unsealed 
> larvae look healthy but there are lots of unsealed pupae at the red 
> eyed stage.  They are scattered and not in lines as is sometimes seen 
> if wax moths are at work.  I haven't seen this  pattern before though 
> and my assumption is that maybe the workers are uncapping because they 
> detect mites, but I could be wildly wrong! I don't know everything!  
> Is it an example of hygienic behaviour?
>
> Anyway, the weather forecast being promising for tomorrow, I intend to 
> give them a dose of formic acid unless, when turning on the computer 
> in the morning, I get howls of protest and good advice from you lot!
>
> Chris

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