VSH uncapping is often mistaken as “bald brood” caused by wax moth larvae tunneling through brood combs. Here is a VSH breeder queen and her brood frames showing a high degree of uncap/recap in February around Southeast Missouri.
your bees are definitely with good hygienic behavior. Visually, it looks very much like a moth. From my experience, I don't remember a tick being infected in a line... It's a little early for a moth, of course, but the temperature in the nest is higher than outside. So it's quite likely. The best way is to take tweezers with you.
Yes, it doesn't look like wax moth on those cells.. that must be VSH. But, don't think that wax moth can't do damage in February.. those little worms can survive in hives all winter. Damage starts with brood and warmer hives. They don't have a chance with strong bees.. and bees fix it fast, so it's not easy to see
I can't wait to get my queens from you, but I am also excited to do assays on my current colonies to see how they score. I have seen some uncapping from them. I doubt there are any 4's but I want to check. I think I might be turning into a VSH geek.
Super interesting. I did not realize they would uncap and recap. So literally it is like they are opening them up and checking for kites and then closing them back up again?
Just a quick question if you dont mind. I heard you mention that the drones are always 100% VSH if the trait is found in that coloney. If I understand correctly, it is because that queen who laid the drone had one father and of course just one mother, but both have the trait in the right combination. Either a recessive gene or dominant?
If both parental lines were high VSH expressing, the F1 daughters will make straight VSH drones regardless of what they open mated to. Drones are unfertilized eggs and are a recombinated set of their mothers dna. That’s where the saying “drones have no father, only a grandfather” originates.
