larvae removal?

[Kathyp]

today the bees are busy pulling fairly mature larvae out of the hive.  i counted 6, but there is a traffic jam at the reduced entrance.  i thought i read somewhere that they expel drone larvae at this time of the year?  i can't find that post.  what they are dragging out has good color and does not look diseased.  they also seem to be at the same level of development.

because of the weather change, i am hesitant to open the hive again.  last time i was in there....just over a week ago....all looked well.

[Brian D. Bray]

Drone larva should have already been expelled, but the way the weathers been this year it's possible.  Another possibility is Hygenic behavior where the larva from mite loaded cells are being expelled inorder to kill the incubating mites.

Either way it sounds if your bees are being dilligent.

[Cindi]

I had something similar happen a short time ago.  What I saw in my hive about 2 weeks ago was almost formed larvae being uncapped, I did not see any that were taken outside of the hive, but I am sure that in a day or two all these dead larvae would be removed.  This startled me, as I am a new beekeeper being in my second year of keeping bees and have not witnessed this ugly thing before, I went on the internet and got information from the fellow who wrote Beekeeping for Dummies and he said that it was addressed in his book and was probably chilled brood.  That made sense  because we did indeed have some extremely cold nights that were out of season, it normally did not get that cold at that time of our year.  So I think that some of t he brood did die.  Best I can guess, it may be something else though, but I think that is what is occurring.  WAs it really cold when you noticed these larvae being removed?

[Kathyp]

could have been from that two day cold snap we had.  today it was warm and maybe they decided to clean house.  could also have been mites, although i didn't have many when i treated earlier. 

didn't seem like they pulled to many out.  fewer than a dozen.  they also cleaned out a few dead bees.  i did lift the top and peak in.  lots of bees....it still seems pretty crowded in there, but they appear to be doing fine.

[Michael Bush]

Could be from a cold snap. Could just be housecleaning.  They are done rearing brood and they are clearing the brood nest.

[limyw]

My experience told they are problematic larva, most often were mites infected.