John, were there any drones in amongst the dead bees.  If so, it is possible
that the queen might have died off.  I read a very good article in last
months Bee Cultre about this.  If your hive has drones in late fall, expec
the worse, as the queen is not producing enough pheremones to indicate to
expel the dones.  But in you case it is possible the queen might have died.
 
Allen Banks
 
John J. Kriz wrote:
 
> Just checked my hive (have only one, new hobbyist) and all the bees were
> dead.  Used the Apistan, no signs of AFB.  They had plenty of honey (or
> so I thought) and was feeding sugar syrup, but still dead.