Something new to me happened to a colony here.  They went drone-layer,
which is not in itself unusual.  The unusual part is that they had lots of
dead brood, and they smelled foul, like foulbrood, but the (drone) larvae
came out of the cells intact.  A comb sample was sent to Mr. Knox at the
USDA in Beltsville, MD.  On the next day Mr. Knox emailed me, writing that
no pathogens were present, but that the bees suffered from "genetic
lethality" causing them to die at all stages of development, and to smell
like EFB.

The old literature is full of accounts of EFB being "cured" by requeening.
One cannot help but wonder whether EFB  or genetic disease was being cured.

The USDA-ARS Bee Laboratory sure does a fine job helping us now to discover
things that our forebears could but guess at, and their help is very fast.

Bill Morong