Dead bees with full pollen baskets?

[John Gesner]

Maybe it's just coincidental, but I was checking the health of my 10 packages that I installed in April the other day. I was tipping up the brood box and looking for swarm cells along the bottoms of the frames. I seemed to be noticing dead bees on the bottom board with full pollen baskets. Not alot, but two or three in most of the hives. There didn't seem to be much in the way of other dead bees, on the bottom boards or on the ground. Am I seeing something unusual here? Possible chemical poisoning?

[George Fergusson]

Likely a pesticide incident and judging from the small number of affected bees, probably some home owner trying kill their dandelions. In other words, if it was a larger or more widespread forage source, you'd be seeing more casualties.

I hate that.

[John Gesner]

Thanks, George, that's pretty much what I was afraid of. There's no real agriculture near this beeyard, so I figured it was a small incident. I'll be going back out there tomorrow and check again. Not that there's anything I can do about it, but I'd like to know if it gets worse. I'll take the digital camera next time.

[George Fergusson]

This is not all that uncommon unfortunately given the widespread use of pesticides and insecticides by the average suburbanite.