dead and dying bees piled at entrance to hive

Karen, look at this thread posted by JimD. His situation was a lot worse but very similar to what you are describing.

https://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?360075-Bad-Day

The good news is that as of the last update (in another thread) the hive is going to survive.

Here is my take on this; if you saw some hairless bees, doesnt have to be many, it could be just one or two. Chronic Bee Paralysis does this, but Im not sure if it happens this time of year. You will see piles of dead bees at entrance and under the entrance. Not scattered too much, that would indicate poisoning, mostly a pile. The bees being kept in by damp weather and big hives. The rubbing of bees against each other breaks the hairs and the virus enter the body through the broken hairs on their body. Nothing to be done about it. Three of my hives had this and surprisingly survived, going into their 2nd winter.

Update: I did not fully inspect the hive today but looked at a few frames in the top and middle boxes. Will look at the bottom box tomorrow. The dieoff did not recur today. There is plenty of food in the hive , so it's not starvation. Bees were kind of slow moving on the top bars, but there was a large number of bees so the colony isn't dwindling. I saw uncapped brood in cells. There was the same old high volume, busy coming and going of bees at the entrance, so there are plenty of field bees. There are some drones already but not flying yet. This hive had a super productive queen last couple years and they also were tremendous and consistent at drawing out wax - seems like a revved up colony. So the hive appears okay apart from that strange clump of dead and dying bees yesterday. I have about a cup of them in alcohol. Wondering if and when it might be possible to send to Beltsville. Is that operating?

Cloverdale said:

Here is my take on this; if you saw some hairless bees, doesnt have to be many, it could be just one or two. Chronic Bee Paralysis does this, but Im not sure if it happens this time of year. You will see piles of dead bees at entrance and under the entrance. Not scattered too much, that would indicate poisoning, mostly a pile. The bees being kept in by damp weather and big hives. The rubbing of bees against each other breaks the hairs and the virus enter the body through the broken hairs on their body. Nothing to be done about it. Three of my hives had this and surprisingly survived, going into their 2nd winter.

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how long did it take for the hives to come right? Did you isolate the hives? Were there other hives in the same yard? Did they show signs of the virus also?

They have plenty of honey?

aran said:

how long did it take for the hives to come right? Did you isolate the hives? Were there other hives in the same yard? Did they show signs of the virus also?

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OK. 3 hives out of 16 or so had this; they did not die, recouped and are still going strong. New queens helped (I think) The hives were not isolated, but I made sure I had clean hive tools. If there are other viruses present in the hive, and high mite infestation, the CBPV might be a little more severe. Bad weather doesnt help either, if it is a big hive which it usually is and they are confined in damp rainy weather. Healthy fat bees are a priority to keep infection levels low. Stressed bees can get sick very easily. When I had my hives tested I was surprised that I had different viruses in them. They never developed into having sick bees, I was told because the bees had a good weight and varroa levels were low. I also had n. cerana a few years ago and lost one hive to that. CBPV can occur again because it is weather related.

I just went over my notes, it happened end of Summer Early Fall. Gave then more room, requeened, added new frames where I could. Also the hive can get smelly.

ok thanks

Cloverdale said:

View attachment 54253

Image of 2 pages of report. These both had the CBPV. This was last year.
View attachment 54249

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This is awesome. How does the process work if i want to send them bees to test?