> driest and warmest winters on record
> Dead Bees with huge pollen loads

My best guess is that someone did a "soil drench", with an undiluted
concentrate straight out of the bottle, rather than the correctly diluted
mix.
Then, because of the dry weather, they irrigated that drenched soil.
The irrigation and warm weather directly resulted in earlier blooms, and
toxic levels of poison in the nectar.
The bees likely made it back to the hive, but could not land properly,
crash-landed in front of the hive, staggered around with twitchy movements,
and died with pollen loads on their legs.
Flying is easy, landing is harder.  You might see some of this behavior if
you return to that yard during flight hours.

This mix of sophisticated irrigation and negligent pesticide use means that
this was a site with a staff, perhaps some unable to read a pesticide label
printed in English.
There are lots of ornamentals that can (re)bloom in a warm winter.

So, irrigated ornamentals, hired staff... any places with their own little
botanical garden nearby?  Any "starting" greenhouses nearby that wholesale
bedding plants?  "Warm winter" implies "open the vent windows, and put
shadecloth on", which makes for an easy in-and-out by honeybees.

Collect those dead bees with pollen loads, you can sample and send off some
for analysis, and nail down the type of pollen (U Texas) and the specific
pesticide (USDA Gastonia) for a few hundred bucks.

	Sherlock Combs 

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