However, what is the actual mechanism that causes a dead out in a colony in
> Jan. where the count is
> over 6% ?
>
>
> My question is, does the beekeeper community recognize any standard of a
> post mortem exam of a dead out?
>
>
When looking at deadouts in the spring.  The ones I generally attribute to
varroa have nearly all of their winter stores and a very small cluster of
dead bees. Sometimes a couple of small patches of dead brood.  Empty comb
in the brood nest has significant mite droppings or "frass".  There is
often a lot of dead varroa in the junk on the bottom board and along the
edge of entrance reducer.  Basically the colony hits a breaking point from
mite load and viruses and steadily dwindles down to small cluster with the
bulk of the sick bees flying off to die.  In our area, brood area has
generally ceased by or before Nov 1 and won't start up again until late
February/early March.

Adam
Barrie, ON

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