If the larvae are underfed, or if the brood chamber covers a larger area than the bees can keep warm, some of the brood will die. Brood killed by chilling turns gray and resembles sacbrood. Such brood will be removed by bees from the cells as soon as the colony grows stronger and returns to normal.

The loss of brood from chilling or lack of feed may be prevented by observing the following precautions: (1) work with the bees as little as possible when weather is cold; (2) replace combs in the same order in which they were removed, especially if the colony is weak and it is early spring; and (3) do not leave frames of brood standing outside the hive any longer than necessary.

Normally when there is shortage of food in a colony, larvae are removed and/or consumed by the adult bees. However, when there is a sudden shortage of adult bees available to feed the larvae, the larvae starve. Affected larvae are not restricted to the periphery of brood combs. The most striking feature of starved brood is the larvae crawling from the brood cells in search of food. Starved brood is almost always restricted to the larval stage. However, emerging bees may starve if they were stressed as pupae by chilling or overheating and if there are too few nurse bees to feed them soon after they have chewed through their cappings. These bees usually die with only their heads out of the cells and with their tongues extended.