I am wondering if someone can help me with explaining a sign noted in a
dead out.  A customer brought in a frame from a recent dead out.  There
were a number of bees on it and she brought a coffee cup with some dead
bees also.  There were a half dozen varroa seen in ~100 bees (no wash, just
ones we happened to see).  There were a couple of bees with deformed wings.
 There were a bunch of bees head first in the cells and no honey on the
frame.  We have been having an extremely long and cold winter, so this
seems like a high mite count along with some pretty cold temperatures
leading to a dead out.  No big worries on the explanation yet.

The thing that we are really wondering about is that there were a number of
bees with very short abdomens.  I remember seeing that touted as a sign of
varroa in a few presentations, and saw it in several hives when I was doing
inspections in Ohio when varroa was first spreading.  I also saw deformed
wings at that time and thought that it was a birth defect created by the
varroa feasting on the developing brood.  I now know better about DWV.
 What I don't have a solid answer for is the short abdomens.  These might
be 1/3 the size of the normal abdomen bees.  Can anyone tell me what is
causing this?  A virus like DWV?  A protein deficiency?  Physical damage
from mites?

Thanks for any input,

Chris

-- 
Christopher J Cripps, DVM
Betterbee
8 Meader Rd
Greenwich, NY 12834
800-632-3379 ext 8001
518-290-3168 direct line
518-691-9226 fax
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