Do Bees Make Poisoned Honey?

>1. Do bees collect nectar or pollen from poisonous plants? We have purple nightshade and, I am sure, other dangerous plants.

Bees work nightshade. I have never heard of it being poisonous to bees to work it. They sometimes work California Buckeye and it kills them if they do, but they tend not to work it if other things are available.

> 2. If they do collect nectar from such plants and make honey from it will it kill them?

Some of them... yes.

> 3. If bees collect nectar from plants that have been sprayed with pesticide and make honey from it can it cause a die off such as I have?

Most pesticides that are sprayed are short lived (lessons learned from DDT)... but yes, they can bring them home and they can affect the hive for a while.

There are other things that cause a "failure to thrive". One would be skunks. Look for soggy piles of dead bees around the hives and evidence of animals trampling down the grass and sometimes scratches on the front of the hive. A failing queen, of course can be an issue. Chalkbrood or European foulbrood can set things back. Not everything is a full blown case either. Sometimes it's a low level. A high level of Varroa can spread viruses that can cause a failure to thrive...

I had my first case of chalk brood this past spring. I was not to concerned about it becasue it was only in part of a frame or two. i thought no big deal. I was later shocked at how much of a difference it made in that colony in comparison to my other colonies. There is a lot of bees in the brood of just part of a frame.

So as you check your hive for indications of what may be going on. take the small stuff seriously. You do not need to find entire frames in trouble to end up with a dwindling hive.

Failing queen, predators, they got into something and hopefully it is temporary. And of course diseases would all make my list of most likely. I would add swarming but I do not often see a hive appear depleted after it has swarmed.

If you are post build up and swarming I would suspect predators first. First comes the bees. then the bee eaters. that is sort of how it works. I have a Blue Jay that has learned to stalk my virgin queens on their mating flights. having witnesses a queen flying in the past few days i can see how they make an easy target. they are not fast flyers.

CajunBee They suspect their Honey may be killing their bees. Read the thread.

You could remove the honey and feed them sugar water so you can either confirm or eliminate it as a concern. process of elimination sort of thing.

There are other things I would want to check in the hive as well.

How much brood is there?
Are there any eggs?
Was there any break in brood for any reason?
Did this hive swarm?
How much honey do they have and are they storing up honey or using it as fast as they can gather it to tend to brood?

Even if bees can find nectar is it enough nutritionally to meet their needs? Some types of plants produce nectar but in quantities that barely sustain the effort for it to be gathered.

I woudl feed a dwindling colony for not other reason than it is dwindling. I would then look for the cause of the decline. possibly never figuring it out.