CARRYING OUT LARVAE
What causes the bees to carry larvae out in front of the hive?
There are several causes. A very common cause is the colony’s running short of stores and the brood consequently dying of starvation. When wax moth larvae tunnel through the center of a brood comb, they will puncture the bee larvae cells, causing the larvae to die. It then will be carried out by the bees. The same results are brought about by brood that has been either chilled or overheated. When we do have a warm spell in the spring, often the queen will expand her brood nest rather rapidly; then a cold spell comes, the bees cannot cover the brood and it will be chilled. Brood frames that are taken from the hive by inexperienced beekeepers and exposed to the chilled winds for a length of time can cause the brood to be chilled to the extent it will die and be carried out. Another reason for this is a condition resulting from bees gathering a poison substance, feeding it to the larvae and causing the larvae to die. This does not occur often since the bee gathering the poison usually will not be able to get back to the hive alive.
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