> On Jan 21, 2018, at 9:34 AM, randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> Could the death of that colony have been from starvation? Yes.
>>> Could it have been from another cause? Yes.
> 
> 
> Such as?
> 
> 
> With a DWV collapse, again, if days get warm enough for flight, the bees
> will fly/crawl off to die, and there may be very few dead bees in the hive.

The key is "if it’s warm enough".  We see many of our customers who suspect that their bees died “in the first cold snap” here in Colorado.  I looked at one yesterday that a customer brought in.

Plenty of honey still present, a good number of bees dead on the bottom, and lots of bees head down in the cells as well as dead on the combs.  Capped shotgun brood is present with bees emerging with their tongues sticking out. Examination of adult bees show plenty of varroa.  Pulling pupae out of the cells show bees with deformed wings.

Customer did no mite counts, or treatments.

No AFB scale, sunken cells, or melted pupae in sealed cells, no EFB scale is present.  I didn’t check for Nosema counts.

My diagnosis is varroa and virus loads killed this colony.

It was too cold for the bees to remove themselves, they are sick and stressed and can’t handle the first cold weather. 

Many more think that their bees absconded, but those are collapsing hives that happen to do it when the weather is warm enough for flight.

Do you think my necropsy is off?

David Baker
To Bee or Not To Bee
Denver, CO USA
             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html