# What Happened to these bees



## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

going on our weather up here, food


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

wildbranch2007 said:


> going on our weather up here, food


Isn't picture #3 honey and uncapped honey?

Some kind of poisoning would be my guess.


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

The bees that are alive look greasy. I think I read somewhere that is a symptom of a disease. I don't recall what it was though.
I have also seen that look in a hive when the entrance was blocked.
I'm just guessing.
Alex


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## fieldsofnaturalhoney (Feb 29, 2012)

I am with AHudd, to me it appears that the bees “look wet/greasy”. Most likely associated with tracking something poisonous into the hive, with enough quantities for their demise;(


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## Apis Natural (Aug 31, 2017)

looks like what mine did when poisoned, I had 3 out of 12 hives in 2016 that were hit, and had the exact same appearance.
I had mine tested by the Oregon Dept AG, came back positive with imicloprid. ORAG had me gather as many bees from each hive as possible then freeze them until they could come out and start the investigation.
Cannabis growers were suspect, but they could not prove which farm was the culprit. I was surrounded by 7 cannabis farms within 2 miles.
I moved all my hives in 2017 to new locations

call your dept of ag and see what they can do to help

sorry bout your hives


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

I also vote for poison. In most cases where mites or diseases cause bee death, many of the bees die away from the colony. These seem to have died all at once.


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

AHudd said:


> The bees that are alive look greasy. I think I read somewhere that is a symptom of a disease. I don't recall what it was though.
> I have also seen that look in a hive when the entrance was blocked.
> I'm just guessing.
> Alex


There are NONE alive every bee in the picture is dead!!


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Just a curiosity, but that honey looks a little funny. It isn’t stored in a contiguous fashion, as bees would typically do it. It is all over the place. None capped.
Don’t get offended, but by chance did you pour any sugar syrup onto those combs in an effort to save the bees?


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

You guys may be better able to see than me, but looks like capped brood possibly to me, and what I assume resembles nectar kinda looks like a shallow cell due to something like entombed pollen. Thinking starvation is a possibility. Was there any honey in the hive? Toothpick will confirm whether that was honey or brood, nectar or wax.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

>"Cannabis growers were suspect, but they could not prove which farm was the culprit. I was surrounded by 7 cannabis farms within 2 miles."

Yummy high! Imicloprid pot! A systemic pesticide on something you are going to smoke? Or you are smart enough to not smoke any and just sell it?


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## ApricotApiaries (Sep 21, 2014)

They look cooked. Starved bees die in a pile but look dry. Cooked bees look greasy and wet. Could the entrances have been blocked by something? Otherwise, its one of the few times I would say acute poisoning (I say one of few, because many times poison is blamed when it is something else entirely). Reminds me of a hive that had Gas poured on it.


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

I'llbeedan said:


> There are NONE alive every bee in the picture is dead!!


I thought some of the bees on the frame were alive. That's a horse of a different color then. I have seen bees die in that fashion from being blocked in. The bees weaken from the heat and the honey/nectar thins and runs down the side of the frames and gets on the bees, some weaken and die stuck to the frame, some fall to the floor only to be coated with dripping honey. They spread a thin coat of honey all over themselves and the interior of the hive crawling around searching for a way out of their home which has turned into an oven and eventually into a pine box coffin. Poison would be more merciful. Let's hope that's what happened.

Alex


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

beemandan said:


> Just a curiosity, but that honey looks a little funny. It isn’t stored in a contiguous fashion, as bees would typically do it. It is all over the place. None capped.
> Don’t get offended, but by chance did you pour any sugar syrup onto those combs in an effort to save the bees?


No, I did nothing! But open them up.


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

ApricotApiaries said:


> They look cooked. Starved bees die in a pile but look dry. Cooked bees look greasy and wet. Could the entrances have been blocked by something? Otherwise, its one of the few times I would say acute poisoning (I say one of few, because many times poison is blamed when it is something else entirely). Reminds me of a hive that had Gas poured on it.


All hives had top and bottom entrances. Both were clear there were not even many dead bees on the bottom board.


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

AHudd said:


> I thought some of the bees on the frame were alive. That's a horse of a different color then. I have seen bees die in that fashion from being blocked in. The bees weaken from the heat and the honey/nectar thins and runs down the side of the frames and gets on the bees, some weaken and die stuck to the frame, some fall to the floor only to be coated with dripping honey. They spread a thin coat of honey all over themselves and the interior of the hive crawling around searching for a way out of their home which has turned into an oven and eventually into a pine box coffin. Poison would be more merciful. Let's hope that's what happened.
> 
> Alex


I just sent a sample to Beltsville. for all 15 hives to have blocked entrances would be unbelievable. All had both top and bottom entrances and were clear. I burned all 15 hives just in case. It is a shame though.


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

Yeah, sudden death of that many hives is suspicious. A shame is putting it mildly.

Please, let us know what you find out.

Alex


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## snapper1d (Apr 8, 2011)

The open honey has a kind of fermented look to it.Some bees are on their sides like they were mashed into the comb and wet looking.If they were poisoned by something in the fields I wouldnt think they would be wet looking.They look kin of like syrup on them.Also some brood look a little melted down like EFB.I enlarged the pic to see those things.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

Last pic definitely shows wasn't starvation, that was a quick kill. Agree it looks like heat, but shouldn't be the case with top and bottom entrances, and unlikely on several hives at once. Any possibility of an unhappy neighbor? I'd expect something from neonics wouldn't completely kill all hives at once. 

I've heard of people killing entire yards with oav with a bug fogger. Primarily when they forgot that they'd used the fogger to kill mosquitoes last summer.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Did you have any sudden swings in temps recently? It looks like a moisture or heat issue.


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

JRG13 said:


> Did you have any sudden swings in temps recently? It looks like a moisture or heat issue.


None. My other two apiaries each within 5 miles of the one that dies, and each containing 15 hives are doing fine. and have honey supers on them that are over half full already.


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## Hankinohio18 (Aug 12, 2018)

Weren't you just trying to sell frames of drawn comb? Were those frames from these hives?


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## funwithbees (Mar 27, 2010)

looks like someone dumped gas on them.
Nick


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

>I just sent a sample to Beltsville. for all 15 hives to have blocked entrances would be unbelievable. All had both top and bottom entrances and were clear. I burned all 15 hives just in case. It is a shame though.









Over reacting a bit?


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

I have never seen nor heard anything like 15 hives dying, bees all in place, within a week in the same yard. I keep all my bees around big ag and I usually roll my eyes when people want to blame pesticides. But I just can't see anything other than pesticide poisoning or intentional poisoning of your hives. Mites, foulbrood, blocked entrances, even starvation are just hard to believe with such a massive die off so quickly. 

I'm sorry Illbeedan. That is a very hard loss to take.


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## aran (May 20, 2015)

i would guess these bees were exposed to something. For 15 hives to just up and die en masse likel this with food stores evident? Seems likely to be an insecticide.


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

odfrank said:


> >I just sent a sample to Beltsville. for all 15 hives to have blocked entrances would be unbelievable. All had both top and bottom entrances and were clear. I burned all 15 hives just in case. It is a shame though.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Do not know what killed them. I am not about to expose my other hives to whatever it is, nor my neighbors bees or the wild hives within the area. Caution is Never an overreaction. I can afford new equipment.


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## I'llbeedan (Mar 31, 2013)

Hankinohio18 said:


> Weren't you just trying to sell frames of drawn comb? Were those frames from these hives?


Do not Know, they could be, I do not mark what hive my extracted honeycomb came from. They rarely go back in the same boxes or ten lots. 



I'llbeedan said:


> it is comb from extracted honey supers last fall. It has been cleaned by the bees removed again and spritzed with BT for winter storage. it is first crop clean yellow wax.





I'llbeedan said:


> I burned all 15 hives just in case. It is a shame though.





I'llbeedan said:


> None. My other two apiaries each within 5 miles of the one that dies, and each containing 15 hives are doing fine. and have honey supers on them that are over half full already.



But thanks for answering the question at hand!


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