I’m watching helplessly as still-alive bees push hundreds of dead or dying bees out of the hive. By the telltale protruding tongue, it’s clear that these bees were poisoned. The poison no doubt was a pesticide or chemical some neighbor sprayed on their landscape.

Our response to the poisoning was to help the hive by adding a feeder and sugar syrup to give the remaining bees more nutritional support (and save their energy for cleaning up the hive and making more brood over sending bees out to bring in pollen or nectar); sweep away dead bees from the entrance as soon as the bees bring them out of the hive (so they don’t have to expend extra energy to then drag them to the edge of the landing board and over the side); and go into the hive and sweep out as many dead bees from the bottom of the hive as we can.

Bees are amazingly resilient! A day or two after the poisoning and initial die-off, the hive is thriving again. There are no further dead bees and although the number of bees seems to be very strong. What looked upsetting when I first saw dead bees did not significantly weaken the hive. Fortunately, it’s early spring and there is a lot of food in the blooming flowers and trees. The hive seems no worse for the die-off. I will keep a close eye on the hive, but I feel fairly confident that it will make it. I’ll report more if anything changes.