>There were maybe 20-40 of these dead bees with the large pollen loads.
 It's like they flew out to forage and made it 99.9% of the way back and
then collapsed before getting back inside.

Now you've got me curious, Brion!  You should have mentioned that there are
no pesticides, miticides, or poisonous plants involved.

This is a phenomenon that I've observed for well over thirty years in
nonagricultural areas up here (I live close to Brion)--long before varroa.
Although I have not seen it happening this spring, I have previously
observed it in various areas of our county in early spring.

Bring some of the dead foragers by to check for nosema.  I've been checking
dead bees in front of my hives for the past few weeks.  Most, surprisingly,
show zero nosema.  Appears to have been a fair amount of CBPV, though.
I've frozen one sample for testing.

Anyone else see dead pollen-bearing foragers in front of hives in early
spring?

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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