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Subject:
From:
Michael Reddell <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:23:06 -0700
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Before I start in on this topic, questions like this need to identify the
geographical region where the problem occurred.  Sometimes this is the most
critical factor in how to diagnose and proceed.  When you ask a question
about something odd happening in a hive, tell us where it is.
 
I agree that this condition isn't normal, but foulbrood is one of several
things it could be an indication of.  Look for cells with dead larvae that
have decomposed into a smelly gooey brown puddle in the bottom of the cell.
 If you find this, stick a toothpick or a pine needle or something in the
puddle.  Pull it out and see if the gooey stuff pulls away from the puddle
in a ropey string on the tip of your probe.  If so you have AFB.  If you
don't find any of this mess, good!  It's probably some other problem.
Since you said the existing brood is all drones I suspect that it is a
queen failure.  If it were AFB you would probably still see brood in all
stages in a strong colony like this one.
 
If the queen has failed, you might  find queen cells, but not necessarily.
Sometimes things don't go well and queen cells fail or don't get made at
all.  When that happens the last cells to hatch are the drones because they
take a few days longer to mature.  A more likely possibility is that the
bees have made a new queen, and after she emerged, they tore down all the
other queen cells.  Theres a period of about 6 to 15 days (depending on
weather on mating days mostly) between the time when she emerges and the
time when she starts to lay.  You might have opened up during that period.
 Put a frame of eggs and young brood in from another hive and see if they
start queen cells.  If not, you probably have a young queen.  The new queen
 may be in the hive but not yet laying.  If they start queen cells,
introduce a new queen ASAP.  They might have successfuly raised a queen
that was subsequently eaten by a bird on a mating flight.  It happens!
It's too late in this case to make them start a new queen because the lag
time of having to raise a queen from scratch and wait for her to start
laying and then wait for her brood to emerge would seriously deplete the
colony (by attrition) and you are bumping up against winter.  If this turns
out to be the case, you can give the colony a frame or two of sealed brood
from another colony to shore them up until the newly introduced queen gets
going.  Depending on your location (see above) the bees will produce more
or less new brood this time of year.  It all hangs on the strength of the
honey flow.
Michael
----------
> >
> No this is not normal.  Is the egg pattern stattered like a shot-gun
> pattern, this is an idication of foulbrood

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