What is up with this brood?

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question

(Northern California, Sonoma County)
So this is a swarm I gathered from my yard about a week and a half ago, good size when I got them, seemed very robust. Quickly the population has seemed to be cut back (might’ve been a time of the day of high foraging, but I still sense something is way off)

But I’ve seen this one other time in a colony and wasn’t sure what it is. The larvae appear to have developed eyes, so they were uncapped at some point later in their development, and their bodies seem to have shriveled up and collapsed in place. Most of the bars of brood have a shotgun pattern, so I knew something was wrong. I thought maybe chalk brood, but it’s almost summertime and I’m in Northern California which is quite dry this time of year, so I don’t think that matches up. So what is this? I haven’t experienced a ton of disease in my 4 years of beekeeping but I can never find a straight answer online about this brood issue.

Posted Jun 8, 2026, 5:05 AM UTC

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