Formed bees but not emerging from comb

[mathew]

I noticed in one of my hives on a brood frame of a weak hive, has several fully formed bees about to emerge but did not emerge. They seemed to have broken through the wax but have already died. So their heads are sticking out and there is no movement. Have any of you seen this in your hive?

[AllenF]

Has it turned cold in your area yet?   Are the dead bees inside or outside the cluster?   I bet they got cold at night.

[Kathyp]

are there enough bees in the hive to cover the emerging brood. 

[wildbeekeeper]

bad mites?  pull them out and see if they deformed wings....

[mathew]

The emerging bees were not in the center. they were mostly close to the bottom of the frame. At the time of inspection, the temperatures were averaging 10 deg celsius at night.

[Tommyt]

For any others like me who don't know the conversion


Celsius °Fahrenheit
–273.15 –459.67
–250 –418
–200 –328
–150 –238
–100 –148
–50  –58
–40  –40
–30  –22
–20  –4
–10  14
0    32
5    41
10   50
15   59

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001731.html

[AllenF]

Ya, sounds like they got cold and died.   I wouldn't worry about it.   They will get cleaned out when it warms up.

[buzzbee]

For any others like me who don't know the conversion


Celsius °Fahrenheit
–273.15 –459.67
–250 –418
–200 –328
–150 –238
–100 –148
–50  –58
–40  –40
–30  –22
–20  –4
–10  14
0    32
5    41
10   50
15   59

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001731.html

With firefox we browser I have this add on called converter:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2286/

You highlight the unit you want converted ,right click the highlighted area and the conversion is done for you.Pretty handy on this "international" forum

[AllenF]

Now that's cool Ken.   ;)

[BjornBee]

I bet the hive is on the verge of starvation.

[Finski]

.

The colony is preparing itsef for winter. I have  met this many times.

That phenomenom happens when the colony have finished the brood rearing and last bees are emerging out. I suppose that they have dropped the brood area temp from 35C because they have decided to stop brood nursing.

In some situation bees draw all the rest brood out, white colors and ready to emerge. It happens in couple of days.

[mathew]

I bet the hive is on the verge of starvation.

Good call! They are on the verge of starvation. Its not that I am not feeding. The sugar syrup is there, pollen patty is provided weekly but the bees are hardly storing the sugar.

[tecumseh]

matthews #11 is a bit confusing.  you seem to suggest you have feed in the hive but they are still starving????

at what temperature did you make the first observation in regards to the bees only partially emerging from their cells?  were these drone or worker bees?

[BjornBee]

I bet the hive is on the verge of starvation.

Good call! They are on the verge of starvation. Its not that I am not feeding. The sugar syrup is there, pollen patty is provided weekly but the bees are hardly storing the sugar.

Thanks.

I've seen this many times. Sometimes when the colony absconds, or at other times when they are starving, you can see that bees will die while attempting to get out of the cells.

Yes, the "scientists" claim that a worker emerges UNAIDED by the others, but this is just another example of urban legend and book material differing from reality. You really think that bees get no help from others as soon as they ask for it, especially if starving? Of course they get help. Unless the hive is starving also.

Yes, many bees emerge by themselves. And even in cold weather, after a colony absconds, you will see bees emerge from unopened capped brood cells. To think they made it that far and some weather just happened to kill them all off half way out of their cells is not right. Bees however are near starvation in the last days of emerging, and if they are not fed by another bees as soon as they can, they will not make it sometimes.  

You will see that many bees will be fed while attempting to get out of their cells. Chewing out of a cell is a labor intensive task. And if the bees do not feed them and they are on the verge of starvation, bees will starve right in the cell with their heads hanging out. I've concluded long ago that bees will and do feed bees while they are emerging from their cells. In cases where they are starving, they go into survival mode and many cell are abandoned, resulting in cells with bees heads sticking out.

Heads of dead bees sticking out of cells....a hive near starvation. Thus a situation where they were not aided or fed as soon as they could have been.

[Kathyp]

Yes, the "scientists" claim that a worker emerges UNAIDED by the others

i believed this until the observation hive.  had a colony that had dwindled down to a couple of handfuls of bees. added a frame of capped brood and only about 1/2 of it survived.  on the 1/2 of the frame that was attended, the bees emerged fine.  on the half that did not have enough bees to cover, most died.  i watched the emerging bees being fed.  it even looked like some were helped to enlarge holes in capps at times.  whatever they were doing, help was required.

[BjornBee]

It's amazing what an observation hive can teach you. Thank you kathy....glad you chimed in before a bunch started qouting that this never happens, after reading it from a book.  :-D

[mathew]

matthews #11 is a bit confusing.  you seem to suggest you have feed in the hive but they are still starving????
at what temperature did you make the first observation in regards to the bees only partially emerging from their cells?  were these drone or worker bees?

I can understand why it is confusing. sometimes the hive doesn't behave the way we expect it to. The first week (Aug 15th) after i installed the frame feeder with sugar syrup, I was worried that they hardly took any syrup. I got really worried on the 2nd week when they still did not touch the syrup, I later found out the new frame feeder did not have proper grooves on the feeder for the bees to climb in n out so they attempted to feed but could not climb out with their full bellies. So I fixed that problem and then they started to take more sugar syrup but not at the expected rate. When I checked the frames for storage, there were hardly any storage. I am guessing that there is not enough bees doing what is required.

The temperature was about 23 degrees celsius when I observed the frames with the dead emerging worker bee.

[mathew]

Thanks Bjorn and Kathy...always learning from you both.