hive dying

[riverrat]

I have several nucs I am feeding to build up I have 20 in one location all was doing well a week ago when I filled the feeders today I checked them one hive had several dead or dying bees on the landing board and several in front of the hive dying or dead
I opened it on up they was lathargic not defensive. and didnt move scatter or fly like normal I used no smoke on a day they are not flying much because of the weather I see no nothing obviuos that would have caused this. the bees would litterally fall off the frames when I inspected them. this hive was doing well a week ago THere was no deformates in the wings could it be tracheal mites I am thinking maybe pesticide kill or maybe I am not getting enough feed to them I am feeding 1:1 sugar syrup 2 quarts every 6 days but I was late getting feed to them by 2 days all the other hives do not show this sign of trouble they are on alfalfa that has blooms but not enough to feed all 20 colonies since most of it was cut last week any suggestions

[Brent Bean]

My guess would be pesticide. Just by the action of the bees and the sudden turn of events. The bees should be active on the comb unless they are sick form something like pesticide. It’s a real bummer when some careless farmer sprays without thinking about what they are killing. Then there are a lot of people that look at all bugs the same, way with a kill’em all attitude. Honeybee’s or cockroaches are all the same to them.

[RAlex]

Did you open any of the other nuc`s ? If the others are acting normally then it sounds like it may be just that one nuc? I would conside moving the nuc that is acting strange to another location if noe of the other nuc`s are showing that behavior. You couldd take a sample of the bee and send them to one of the Bee Labs. I believe there is one in texas and maryland....Rick

[riverrat]

this is the only one of the 20 acting this way I am going to move it monday night to an isolate location. I talked with the land owner he did not know of anyone spraying in the area. What baffles me is if it was pesticide I would thing the other hives would show signs of it since we have not had much of a flow here

[Mike Gillmore]

What did the brood frames look like in the deteriorating hive? Compared to the others, any noticeable differences?

[riverrat]

no noticable differeence I will try to get out tommorrow and take some pictures

[riverrat]

I finally got the answers to what happened to the hive that was dying. I talked with the land owner he said he had not sprayed. however last night he got in touch with me to let me know the guy on the other side of the hedge row sprayed his 4o acre wheat field that has been layed out for a year. he sprayed on the day before I noticed the kill it set the hive way back and will take time but it should recover. now for the rest of the story the day I sat the hives out I talked with the land owner that owns and farms the field sprayed. I let him know there was bees down in the hedge row. I asked him to let me know when he was going to spray so I could take the appropriate measures. Has an insentive I always offer land owners a pound of honey for the heads up they are going to spray. he not only agreed but also wanted me to place hives on his cotton fields bordering his alfalfa he grows for tonage( lots of blooming) It sounded like a good mix I was about to move some of the hives to this location since the cotton is in the ground and alfalfa is starting to bloom but I am having 2nd thoughts especialy since cotton is sprayed often. he used round up herbicide on the field sprayed and may not have thought about it bothering the bees. there was not a lot of wild flowers in the field and there is alfalfa in bloom on the side of the hedge row the bees are on. apparently this one hive had found something they liked over there. I am going to go talk to him and find out what happend so we can get it worked out.

[okb]

That cotton makes some fine honey.

[kensfarm]

The wheat field was probably just sprayed w/ roundup.. the cotton field is the one that gets the pesticide.