Hello All !

We had a bee poisoning incidence in Finland early this month.

This is not very normal here, but now 50 hives (3 beekeepers in same 
area) lost flying bees on one day.

The chemical officials are not experienced so I am trying to help them.

Like telling that guard bees can not kill 10 000  different smelling 
bees in a day in front of the hive, or am I wrong :)

But we have no idea what chemical caused this.

To know what plants bees were collecting would help narrowing the 
search.

One clue could be the pollen in bees. We got fresh samples of dead bees 
in freezer.

I have not seen them but got told that some have pollen in legs. Finding 
the botanical origin for that is no problem.

But the nectar collectors have no pollen on legs.

They should have pollen from nectar plant in their bodies, can this  
pollen be separated by brush / washing for analyzis of origin?

Anyone done something like this?

If yes what is the technique?

The most likely plants in area are wild raspberries, field beans, 
oilseed rape and peas

Ari Seppälä
beekeeping advicer, commercial beekeeper
Finland

ps coldest summer in 30 years, only one week of honeyflow, total crop 
will be 15 -20 kg , about half or normal

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