I thought you did a video clip of you lifting the roof and lots of SHB running to hide. Some warm and humid weather and they breed up their numbers in no time at all. Most bee keepers under estimate how much damage they can do in a hive that isn’t a strong colony.
WOW, 6:15am and a blue sky and a drop in humidity, I hate it when as soon as I put my ventilated suit on I start to sweat…
Cheers
Underdeveloped baby bee ejected from hive
Now I know what you mean 
I would never have figured it out without you explaining it. A smoker among them might have thought “if they’re going to go up in smoke, they might as well be enjoyed”.
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Good morning everyone, another twist in this tale! I’ve gone out this morning to find a few dead drone bees on the ground below the landing board in addition to a couple more dead brood. Could it be that the hive is controlling the number or drones in the colony?? Photo below.
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Little bit early, but yes, it could well be the start of winter preparations. 
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Good morning Yoland. It wouldn’t surprise me if the evicted brood is drone brood. I wonder if the adult evicted drones were at the point of emerging & unable to emerge properly, so they got evicted. Anyway you’re doing the right thing by monitoring daily.
I doubt if drones get evicted down your way this early in the season. They may not get evicted at all.
cheers
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Thanks Jeff and Dawn. We’re doing a brood inspection this weekend so we’ll be sure to check for SHB damage as well
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You’re welcome Yoland, just look out for any inconsistencies in the comb. Especially if it has been cleaned out & empty.
The Fall armyworm right on our doorsteps looks like being a challenge for our bio security friends.
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That is definately one insect we don’t want in Australia. I’ve been doing some reading over night and it reminds me of the ‘grass hopper’ plagues back in the 1960’s and 70’s driving in the NSW out back and they were so thick flying close to the ground they blocked the cars radiator and it was a battle to stop the cars engine from over heating. They would eat a green paddock bare in a couple of days.
I can see a big profit for the likes of Bayer, Monsanto and the other pesticide companies and another nail in the coffin for the farmers. It is rather chilling Jeff. The price to pay for our ever shrinking world.
Cheers
That one IS a worry Pete. If they do get here, I’ll get a bug zapper or 2, plus I’ll keep encouraging the birds & wasps. With the moths being able to fly 100k’s down wind in one night would certainly be difficult to stop. They’ve invaded around 60 countries in the past couple of years. That’s frightening.
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Considering the volume of movement of goods and people (and the level of stupidity of some, trying to conceal bio security items), I sometimes wonder how they manage to have any success at all. I have a lot of respect for them.
Hi everyone, an update following our brood inspection today.
There were no signs of either SHB or wax moth in the brood box. It seems like they’ve starting prepping early for winter by evicting drones.
The brood pattern isn’t great though, one of the centre frames had no brood whatsoever. There was a lot of pollen stores and most frames had patchy brood. I’ve attached a photo of one of the centre frames, third from the edge.
I know it’s late in the season, so I’m wondering if this is the queen ramping down on production, or just a dodgy queen?
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Looks fine to me. That’s not patchy. It’s just that different cells are at different stages of development. I can see larvae which means the queen filled the gaps.
There could have been eggs in that bare frame. Eggs require a keen eye and certain angle of good light to see.
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That brood doesn’t look too bad to me either, I agree with Fred.
Is this the one you referred to as “patchy”?
Hi Fred and Zzz
Yes that one I thought looked patchy, but good to know you think it’s ok. Below is another frame, this was fourth frame in. Fifth frame had no brood at all.
There is nothing in that photo that says that anything is wrong with the queen or the brood on that frame. Sure you can get a frame that is covered in capped brood but you can also find a frame that has capped brood, larvae at various stages, eggs and empty cells where young bees have just emerged from. That same frame in a week or two should look totally different, empty cells now could have well developed larvae, capped cells have had bees emerged and the bees cleaning out the cells, more or less honey on the arc. Be happy with that frame, very nice.
Cheers
Thanks Peter. On both sides the third frames in seemed to have good brood in that case. Glad everyone thinks the first photo is ok. One of the frames was really well covered. See below. Anyway, thanks all, I’ll relax about it now!
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Both of the last two pics are good also, Zooming onto the first shows lots of eggs and larvae in what appears to be empty cells and the brood patterns are good. Remember the colony has only one queen and at her best and ideal conditions she can only lay up to 2,000 eggs a day if the colony allows her. Relax, the colony is going well and won’t be shutting down for Winter till around late April.
Cheers
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Those frames look good to me also. I see nothing wrong with the brood pattern. Ditto to what Fred, Zzz & Peter said.
cheers
Thank you everyone! I really appreciate all your quick responses. Talk again soon
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