Bees flying off with Pupae

Understudy · January 11, 2006, 06:22:18 PM

You know I could sit for hours and watch this hive.
I saw something very interesting. There were bees coming out of the hive.
Those bees were carrying pupae White pupae that were not alive. At least not when I got to look at them. I know the hive has no queen. I know things are out of wack with it. I am just wondering if these pupae were bad or they are making room to make a new queen or something else.

I saw it happen three times inside of an hour.

Sorry no pics on this one.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

TwT · January 11, 2006, 07:35:09 PM

don't give up yet, you might have a queen, she could have been in the boat when you went back and she could have been in that cluster on the ground, the brood might have been chilled brood or brood that died in the removal and the bee's are just cleaning out the cells, it happens.

Michael Bush · January 11, 2006, 09:09:54 PM

Hygenic bees will remove healthy looking pupae when they are infested with mites or something else you can't see. They also do this when there is not enough stores to support the population and when the brood gets chilled and dies. It's pretty normal to see this.

FordGuy · January 12, 2006, 10:43:34 PM

Quote from: UnderstudyYou know I could sit for hours and watch this hive.
I saw something very interesting. There were bees coming out of the hive.
Those bees were carrying pupae White pupae that were not alive. At least not when I got to look at them. I know the hive has no queen. I know things are out of wack with it. I am just wondering if these pupae were bad or they are making room to make a new queen or something else.

I saw it happen three times inside of an hour.

Sorry no pics on this one.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

don't rule out the possibility they are discarding wax moth larva

Understudy · January 12, 2006, 10:54:27 PM

No they are definitley bee pupae. There are about 30-50 of them on the plywood. Definitley bee bodies.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

amymcg · January 13, 2006, 08:39:37 AM

That's not a bad sign. Removing dead pupae or damaged pupae is a good thing. Wait a week then go in the hive and see if you have any eggs, larvae or queen cells.

If you dont' have any of those, you may want to order a queen.

Good luck

Michael Bush · January 14, 2006, 01:53:01 PM

>That's not a bad sign. Removing dead pupae or damaged pupae is a good thing.

I agree. It's the bees doing their job.

> Wait a week then go in the hive and see if you have any eggs, larvae or queen cells.

But this time of year there may not be eggs an larvae.

amymcg · January 14, 2006, 08:56:29 PM

We should ask another Florida beekeeper. . .

Anybody else from Florida? Do your bees raise brood all year?