Hi,
Well I have been following this thread with some interest.  To me it
does not sound like pesticide damage but varroa mite as was mentioned
earlier but seems to have lost favor.  You said that you had 4 varroa
mites on an ether roll test with about 40 bees.  A normal ether roll
sample is about 300 bees so if you had 4 varroa for 50 bees you would
have had 24 varroa on a standard 300 bee ether roll test.  By most
counts this is a pretty significant varroa population.  Most of the
damage you are seeing is due to the viruses the mites are vectoring in
the colony - you described a pretty typical case of parasitic mite
syndrome ( PMS ).  You could try treating for varroa but if the bee
population is too low it may be too late to save the colony.  Of
course the only way you will learn for sure if it is too late to save
them it to try.

Good luck.


blane


******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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