Bob -

Thanks for the reply.  In answer to your questions:

No mites, no AFB, no EFB.  Probably not insecticides; it doesn't look like
insecticide kill, there is no agriculture within many miles, and no spraying
for mosquitos (West Nile).  Could maybe be flower-garden or kitchen-garden
insecticides but I don't think so.  The hive is on the land of a "green"
person and a long way from other residences.  Good location, we thought.

The bees and the queen used the combs normally for brood and stores from
April when we installed the package to August, when we found them low on
stores and fed them.  (We fed most of our bees in August.  A long drought
and then a long spell of rain made this a tough year for foraging.)  Other
colonies used the same batches of syrup willingly, so it probably wasn't the
sugar.

Did not store the combs with mothballs, but with para.  Other colonies have
no problem using supers from the same stacks in the same building.

Obviously, there's some fact missing that we're not seeing.  It's mighty
dark inside a beehive.

Walter


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