Regarding protection of honey bees under law, this summarizes:

In most countries, a legal framework
is in place to protect honey bees and other pollinator insects
from the negative effects of pesticides and other agrochemicals.
The relevant decrees are the European Council Directive 91/414
in Europe, and the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide
Act in the US. To determine the effects of pesticide exposure on
bees, the standard methods used are the calculation of the LD50
(median lethal dose) or LC50 (median lethal concentration) of a given
substance with respect to adult bees or larvae. Another common
measure is the hazard quotient which is based on the LD50.
Based on the results of these assays, substances are then classified
into different categories of risk to bees (e.g. in Germany B1–B4),
and conditions and restrictions for application of substances in
each category are defined.

As a consequence of the protection by laws and decrees, direct
poisoning of honey bees by pesticides in the field is now a comparatively
infrequent event in most countries of Europe and North
America. For instance, the absolute number of samples with damaged
bees sent to the Julius-Kühn-Institut (JKI) in Germany (the
central institution for analysis of damage by poison), decreased
from more than 400 in the 1970s to 67 in 2004 (www.jki.bund.de).

They go on to say:

However, the hazards of agricultural pesticides to honey bees have
been most dramatically illustrated by a recent accident in southern
Germany, where in the spring of 2008, more than 11,000 honey bee
colonies were severely damaged by direct poisoning. The colonies
were poisoned by toxic dust containing neonicotinoid insecticides
that had become loosened from dressed corn seed due to incomplete
incrustation during the dressing process. When the corn seed
was sowed using pneumatic sowing machines, the dust became
windborne and drifted across the fields onto colonies and other
plants visited by honey bees at the time. Unfortunately, major nectar
and pollen sources, such as dandelion, oilseed rape and fruit
trees were blooming at the time so that millions of foraging bees
were poisoned by the dust (http://www.jki.bund.de/presse).

The seed dressing with the neonicotinoid insecticide Clothianidin
had been made compulsory by decree for broad areas in southern
Germany to prevent outbreaks of the corn root worm
Diabrotica virgifera. As a consequence of the accident, the registration
of Clothianidin in Germany has been withdrawn, and the
ingredient may currently not be sold or used (http://
www.bvl.bund.de). Among EU countries, the legal situation concerning
neonicotinoid insecticides is currently quite variable ...

Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 103 (2010) S80–S95

[note: I realize this is somewhat dated now, further developments have occurred since this was written]\

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