> I recieved the italian bees about a week ago.This consisted of 5 > frames of brood and a laying queen.(yet to be verified).Iwas watching the > bees come and go when I noticed dead brood being removed from the hive by > workers.(2 in about 20 mins.)The first was carried off over my neighbors > house so I didn't get a good look at it,however I took the 2nd dead brood > away from the worker .upon closer inspection I noticed the head was eaten > away and the thorax was empty,all entrails removed. There are a number of possibilities here, the most obvious of which would be starvation. Damage to the brood while transferring it into the nuc is another and ant predation is a third that comes to mind. Allen