> Since bees don't live very long, the question would be how much
> malformed protein builds up in their systems from a prion problem,
> and is that enough to kill them before they die of "bee old age"?

And the question of how individual bees might become infected comes to
mind.  Would it be from eating specific larvae, which might have been
infected by being fed by bees which had been cleaning up infected bees
or larvae previously?  (Assuming Randy had not just fed them some bee soup).

There are specific circumstances under which bees naturally 'eat' the
contents from the bodies of other bees.

+ One is when cleaning up the mess of older bees which had been squashed
in manipulations or trucking.

+ Another is during dearth, when larvae can no longer be fed.

+ Another is when pupae are diseased or chilled and die.

In each of these instances, as I understand it, there is a specific
cohort of bees which normally perform the task.

A rough progression lifted from Wikipedia:
Cell cleaning (days 1–2)
Nurse bee (days 3–11)
Advanced Nurse Bees (days 6–11)
Wax production (days 12–17)

Note that cleaning comes first.  I don't know if that includes eating
dead larvae and pupae or cleaning up squashed bees.  In my experience,
whenever a bee is squashed a nearby bee notices and gets to work, so age
may not be a factor in this task.

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