Poison?

[bleta12]

I was making some nucs today on a yard with 40 plus big hives while I noticed that only 2 hives, in different rows had some fresh dead bees in front of the entrance on the ground, 150 bees or so. The activity was normal and only two hives had this problem.
I was thinking of a mild poisoning but because this happened only on 2 hives makes me suspect that may have been a light robing.
I ask the farmer that I keep the bees at and he said that he did not use anything, probably others in the area have used some think that the bees did not like.

Any ideas or similar experience?

I have not experience poisoning in the past but I have seen pictures of it.

Gilman

[WVbeekeeper]

like you mentioned, poisoning affects mostly foragers and would most likely affect more than two out of forty hives. what did the bees look like? were they older or really fuzzy new bees? were their wings shriveled or underdeveloped? could've been robbing. but consider this, if a queen lays 1500 to 2000 eggs a day and the bees all roughly live the same amount of time, then you have 1500 to 2000 bees die each day too. say in three days you've had 4500 to 6000 bees die off. maybe the bees you see are just older, died in the hive and have been carried out. but then again, i'm not a phd or anything. but i do have dead bees in front of my hives too. my stonger hives have the most in front of them. i haven't seen any robbing or mites this year, so i guess mine worked out their life unit and died at the hive.

[Chef Isaac]

I would have to disagree that it would effect more than two hives. I ha the same issue... only a few hives out of the rest. Each hive will likely be foraging from diiferent sources.

It is most likely a pesticide.

I would suggest feeding the hives and that will help them recover. Do the bees a favor and remove the dead bees.

[WVbeekeeper]

chef, you may very well be correct. i've never had any experience with poisoning, so i was throwing out some other options. how did you come to the conclusion that it was poisoning?

[Chef Isaac]

WV:

That is a good question. I do not know for sure. The farmer used a spray on part of his far but he covered it up. Other farmers in the area are suspect as well. I opened up the hives and tons of bees were dead on the bottom board. Also the bees were lathargic (sp) and could not hand onto the comb. I fed them and all is getting better.

[WVbeekeeper]

yeah, i imagine they would be lathargic if poisoned. laying on their back and kicking their feet in the air, acting sluggish, drowsy, can't stand up, etc. i'm glad your bees are doing better now after the feeding.

bleta12, maybe you should open those hives up and see if you have a bunch of dead bees on the floor as well and see how they act on the comb.

[bleta12]

I will open them tomorrow. They were dead fresh bees in the front of the hive, same you see on pictures of poisoning but not as much and not as dramatic 150-200, not your usual few dead bees.

[bleta12]

Normally the bees clean the dead ones far from entrance in the summer, in winter closer to the entrance. Only two hive? Is this the start of something bigger, larger scale poisoning?

I will check them tomorrow.

[Michael Palmer]

Could it be bee paralysis? Were the bees quivering and twitching before they died?

[BjornBee]

Dr. Thomas Seeley did alot of forage mapping while at Harvard and Yale. He mapped bees in an effort to detail bee's forage strategies. The maps he made in studies from 1980, showed very concentrated efforts by each colony. Almost all forage bees from one hive will collect from the same area, and from the same source. This is a result of the scout bee's recruiting. Each hive is different.

I had asked the question last year on beesource about selecting bees for their preference of a particular pollen source. (No real responses) I was thinking of this as I had noted one hive would be bring in all white pollen, and the next some other color such as yellow. There was no doubt that one hive found or favored one source and the next hive preferred (or found) something completely different.

I have no doubt that poisoning would or could effect only two hives in a yard, while seeing no impact on the remaining hives.

[tecumseh]

michael palmer sezs:
Could it be bee paralysis? Were the bees quivering and twitching before they died?

tecumseh ask:
is that a symptom of poisoning or a cause?

[bleta12]

I checked that yard again and did not see any other signs of other bees dying in front of those two hives, the other hives on the yard were OK.
So might have been a light poisoning. We had some heavy rain here some days ago and that may have washed anything any body may have sprayed.

Gilman

[Michael Palmer]

>michael palmer sezs:
Could it be bee paralysis? Were the bees quivering and twitching before they died?

tecumseh ask:
is that a symptom of poisoning or a cause?<

No, a symptom of bee paralysis. There will be a pile of dead and dying bees on the ground in front of the hive. Those not dead will be quivering, or their feet will be twitching. It's usually only one or two colonies in the yard. This continues for some time, and doesn't stop as did the symptoms in Gilman's yard.