Dead Hive Please Help

[MooreHoney]

Well I took a day off from work today. So to relax I went to play with the bees and do some maintenance that I have been needing to do. Well I got to my first hive and there were hundreds of bees dead outside of the hive. I was immediately alarmed. So I opened the hive up to find a very strong hive almost completely empty. There were still a 4 or 5 frames of bees but all of the bees were very lethargic. Absolutely no capped brood, no honey stores, and at least 10 queen cells that they started. Also there was no queen. I spent a lot of time looking at the bees with no obvious causes of what was going on. A lot of the bees looked "fat." I don't really know if that is the word but they just looked like fat bees, which I found kind of odd or I could have been just looking for something and made it up in my mind. There was also hundreds of bees dead at the bottom of the hive. Any thoughts or ideas on what is going on would be appreciated.

[mike haney]

when was the last time you opened them? do you have any more hives? are they urban or rural? can you identify a drone if you see one?

[MooreHoney]

My hives are rural. They are about 15 miles from town and surrounded mainly by woods with very limited agriculture. And I have 5 other hives that all seem to be fine. And I opened them 3 weeks ago and they seemed fine. I did look at them about 2 weeks ago but I did not get into them at all. I did see two drones but that was it.

[riverrat]

sounds like they may have gotten into some pesticide

[Tom G. Laury]

When Calif bees get buckeye poisoning their abdomens swell and they pop when squeezed slightly. It also appears much like pesticide exposure in that there are dead and dying bees in front. Why only one colony I don't know. Does sound like some kind of poison.

[MooreHoney]

If someone was to spray bug killer on them would that have the same affect? And would the brood hatch out? We have a person a couple of miles away that has been know to do stupid things before.

[riverrat]

If someone was to spray bug killer on them would that have the same affect? And would the brood hatch out? We have a person a couple of miles away that has been know to do stupid things before.

bug killer is pesticide and will have the same effect. If the brood is capped it may or may not hatch. The open larva will die. before you jump to conclusions. You might send some of the dead bees to Beltsville for analysis to see for sure what is happening.

[MooreHoney]

That sounds like a great idea. I how many should I send off? And does anyone have an address for me? Thanks for all the help

[BjornBee]

Starving.

[MooreHoney]

Starving.

You think??

[beemandan]

Starving.

Or post robbing.

[JordanM]

Here is all the infromation and who and how to send them:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=7472

And the best part is its FREE