Yesterday (sept 3), I noticed that there was a mound of dead bees in front of each of my two hives. I'd guess I was looking at 1000 dead or die-ing bees. I first noticed them in early afternoon. I hosed the bees away from the hives, and observed more dead bees being hauled out of the hives. By early evening there might have been 1-200 more dead bees. Today there are still a few quivvering, but no where near what happened yesterday. This is the first time I have ever seen this sort of thing. I strongly suspect some pesticide, but can't imagine how it could impact my bees. There is no agriculture around, yesterday was Sunday (who sprays on weekends). I went and chatted with the M&O people at a nearby water park, but they hadn't done anything unusual.

So....what kills bees at the hive? I would think most pesticides would kill them before they could get far.

Side note (maybe). I have a large Brugmansia (datura relative) that was heavy with flowers this week. For a couple of mornings the plant was thick with bees, mostly gathering pollen. (And I mean thick...a couple hundred flowers, each with 4-5 very frantic bees)

-dave

(Los Angeles county)