CARRYING BROOD AND YOUNG BEES OUT OF THE HIVE

Will you tell me what is the matter with my hive of bees this fall? They seem to be working O.K., but they bring out brood or young bees not hatched out or fully developed. I also find some fully developed bees in front of the hive in the grass. They cannot fly or get up out of the grass. The wings seem too small.

It is normal for a colony to carry out brood or immature bees in the fall of the year when there is no honeyflow. The adult bees are probably drones which are eliminated every fall in a queenright colony. The bees do not want to feed either the drones which are worthless to a good colony, or drone larvae which will not be needed. It is the instinct of the honey bee to build up population when they will be needed to gather nectar and pollen and then reduce the population again when the surplus has been gathered and stored to enable the colony to form a compact winter cluster and survive until the next season.