Aborted drone brood ..?

[Culley]

Here it's spring.
We just had a week or two of rain, then a very hot day, then a very cold day.
Two of my hives have just removed some drone brood. I could see the bees flying outside with the brood and dropping it off. One hive was chucking out purple eye drone brood and the other it looked like fat drone larvae.
There's plenty of beetles. Is this the early stages of SHB infestation getting really bad, or could be because of the cold?

I had a peek at some of the frames and there's some bits that look chewed out? They look like they're chewed down to the foundation, but they're frames the bees have drawn out without foundation. Is this what the beetle larvae do? It looks more like the bees have chewed bits out, would they do that in response to the presence of beetle larvae or eggs? I had to put them back together quickly with cold weather and thunderclouds rolling in.
I've caught a few SHB larvae in traps but I haven't found them messing up the hives, although thoroughly inspecting fairly often. Most of the larvae in the traps are tiny, only a few millimeter's long.
I'm placing extra traps and doing manual beetle kills when the weather permits. What else should I be doing and looking out for?

[AllenF]

Cold will kill brood.   SHB just turns brood to slime.  Bees will stay away from the slime if it is too bad.

[caticind]

Doesn't sound like SHB, rather that the bees have decided it's time to stop rearing drones.  Some bees with hygenic behavior will also pull purple-eyes with varroa and dispose of them.

As for the chewing, bees will chew down and rework their own comb sometimes...I'd suggest you check that area again in a few weeks and see what they replace it with.

[Culley]

Thanks. Another hive has just aborted brood today after a cow separated the boxes during rainy weather.