Gnarly dying hive

[cg3]

Guy in our bee club sent this out. Strong hive crashing. Queen gone. No obvious parasites. Remaining bees are black. Have actually changed color.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38518075/201...%20Beehive.MOV
Any ideas? Fungus? Mold?

[Verick369]

I really don't know for sure, but with the queen gone I would guess she died of something and the hive was unable to replace her. The cause of it would be hard to tell without doing tests on the hive. Potentially she got some pesticides, maybe mites/disease. Too many things to test from here. Sometimes its best to just say "it was a weak strain" and try again.

[squarepeg]

i had a small swarm of mostly black bees try to take over (usurp) one of my hives last fall.

i was able to stop them and kill the usurping queen before she got into the hive.

if your friend had something similar happen, and if both queens got killed in the process, it would have left them queenless and now dying out.

[JD's Bees]

Hairless Black Syndrome is a symptom of Chronic Paralysis Virus. The bees will be dark to black in color and unable to fly,will begin to tremble, and die within a couple of days.

[KQ6AR]

I would think any weak hive in Ohio that you open this time of year will die.
We won't even go through ours in CA right now.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, If in doubt don't take the hive about to check.

[squarepeg]

agree with dan, especially if opening the hive doesn't lead to any meaningful action that you might take.

[Honey-4-All]

Guy in our bee club sent this out. Strong hive crashing. Queen gone. No obvious parasites. Remaining bees are black. Have actually changed color.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38518075/201...%20Beehive.MOV
Any ideas? Fungus? Mold?

The workers often change "color" when the hive goes queenless. More shiny generally. Looks to me from the video you also have some virus issues going on. Maybe that's why they tossed the queen.

[DCurran]

Just over 1/2 way through the video--what's on the bottom board? Please don't tell me that's an Apistan strip.

[Honey-4-All]

Just over 1/2 way through the video--what's on the bottom board? Please don't tell me that's an Apistan strip.

Curiosity is killing this cat. Where did you see a strip in that hive? Time for new glasses I guess.

[cg3]

Hive was untreated. Bees sent off to Beltsville.

[Seymore]

So sad, cg. Do keep us posted please.

[wadehump]

Please give update when results come back. Was there moisture on the inter cover bees appear wet.