Unsuccessful Robbing

[Beeboy01]

Just had an interesting thing occur at my yard. Hive #2 which has been cranking suddenly had about 200 dead bees out in front of the hive. At first thought it might of been a poisoning but I found another few hundred dead bees in the lunch tray which I keep under the screened bottom board. Must of happened two days ago because the dead bees suddenly showed up yesterday. The good news is that #2 is still cranking along and an inspection showed that they still have a good crop of honey present.

[BeeMaster2]

Beeboy,
Did you see any dead or alive carpenter ants? Check every space that they can hide.
Jim Altmiller

[van from Arkansas]

BEEBOY, first I would like two thank you for your encouraging post last February about your flowers and your honeybee activity.  Your post were enlightening to me as my bees were clustered with no warmth in site and I was anxious due to LACK of my bee activity cause of cold. THANK YOU, Sir.

Second: Dead bees?  Is it robbing?  I would expect to see Bee parts, torn wings, legs and so on.  If you suspect poison: place a bunch of dead bees in a ventilated jar with some healthy bees and note if the healthy bees die in a matter of hours.  This method is rather crude but simple and gives some indication of environmental factors.  Not saying this is a bonafied method, but certainly much simpler than sending bees to a lab.

Again thank you BEEBOY for your encouraging post last February.

[iddee]

It doesn't sound like robbing to me. First, robbing seldom takes place this time of year. Second, robbing doesn't stop. It goes on until there is no honey left to rob.
Better look for the source of poison.

[van from Arkansas]

ID, my thoughts as well, however you worded much better.  One reason I look up to you, ID, Wally.

[Beeboy01]

It wasn't carpenter ants, lost a nuc to them about two weeks ago and know the signs. There were no dead ants in the carnage left in the tray. My first though was poison also but having dead bees in the tray had me wondering why would bees try to get in through a screened bottom board instead of the front entrance of their hive. They have never tried to get under the hive so far.  The only thing that made sense to me in this case was that the robbers tried to attack the hive through the front entrance got driven off and then attacked through the SBB where the bees in the hive stung them through the screen which is why there were so many dead bees in the tray.
  If it was poison I would expect all the dead bees to be out in front of the hive along with a lot of still dying bees. I"ve seen poisoned hives before and it looked different.  When the sun went down the robbing stopped and since they couldn't get into the hive they didn't come back.

[saltybluegrass]

Beeboy,
Did you see any dead or alive carpenter ants? Check every space that they can hide.
Jim Altmiller

Jim, I find bull ants in my top feeder but can?t find their origin. I sprinkled some Diatemecuous earth around but still find them -

[Ben Framed]

BEEBOY, first I would like two thank you for your encouraging post last February about your flowers and your honeybee activity.  Your post were enlightening to me as my bees were clustered with no warmth in site and I was anxious due to LACK of my bee activity cause of cold. THANK YOU, Sir.

Second: Dead bees?  Is it robbing?  I would expect to see Bee parts, torn wings, legs and so on.  If you suspect poison: place a bunch of dead bees in a ventilated jar with some healthy bees and note if the healthy bees die in a matter of hours.  This method is rather crude but simple and gives some indication of environmental factors.  Not saying this is a bonafied method, but certainly much simpler than sending bees to a lab.

Again thank you BEEBOY for your encouraging post last February.

Mr Van, I hope I never have a poison problem but if I ever do, I will remember this (test). Thank you for posting.
Phillip

[Beeboy01]

That's a good way to check for poison. I cleaned up all the dead bees and it's been raining the last two days so I'm not able to give that test for poison a try.