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 *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html