Strictly anecdotal, but some time ago, 10-15 years? I had an observation 
hive that built against the glass so that I could watch the development 
within several dozen cells.  The stock was a Russian hybrid queen, at 
least second generation here among my motley multi-sourced survivor 
stock.   I saw a number of worker and drone cells with varroa mites 
inside.  Some became trapped in cocoon silk,in others you could watch 
the nurse bees reaching in trying to grab the varroa, sometimes 
successfully.  In about 8 cells after capping I could still see a varroa 
mite.  All of these  were later partly uncapped and the nurse bees kept 
trying to grab the varroa. Some were recapped, some left partly open, 
all hatched normal looking workers.  I discussed it with Jamie Ellis and 
Jennifer Berry, along with some allo-grooming behavior that ignored 
varroa and focused on the wing base spiracles.  They both postulated 
that these were types of hygienic behavior, the brood uncapping for 
Varroa, the allo-grooming for tracheal mites that enter the wing base 
spiracle.  I believe they have both gone on to study the phenomena, but 
due to health reasons I have not kept up on the literature though I 
still keep about 10 hives of my motley survivors.

I'll be interested to see what others have seen....

On 5/24/2016 4:42 AM, Steve Rose wrote:
> On 5/23/2016 9:20 PM, John Caldeira wrote:
>> Hello Bee-L,
>> A local beekeeper presented photos of unusual looking sealed brood 
>> that I'd never seen before.  It looks somewhat like an extreme case 
>> of 'bald brood' caused by wax moth, but the beekeeper tells me the 
>> colony is strong and he has seen no sign of wax moth. ...
>
> Those are fascinating pictures and I am hoping someone can explain the 
> phenomenon...  Could the bees be sensing a problem with the pupae, 
> such as AFB, then removing the worst and leaving others open so they 
> can be monitored?
>
>             ***********************************************

-- 
Carolyn Ehle in South Carolina

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