Bee Massacre

The title gives away the content of this post - most of the bees are dead. Here is the whole story:

Dad and Pauline came down to visit before they are off for a well deserved Hawaiian vacation. Pauline really wanted to see the bees so we swung by Mom's house. We mixed up some sugar syrup to feed the bees and walked out to the hive (no suits, since I have a hive top feeder and can just pour food in the top without riling up the bees). When we stepped into the side yard (where the hive is) there was a carpet of bees on the ground. Thousands of bees were dead or dieing:

I was horrified. That's what the ground looked like for a 3ft radius around the hive, it tapered off after that, but there was still a high concentration of dead bees for a 15 foot radius around the hive.

Pauline and I suited up and popped open the hive (I definitely needed her help, that top box is still really heavy). The bees on the frames seemed to be walking around fine, but the bees that were trying to fly would get their front legs off the ground then fall over. The only thing that I can think of is that the bees were poisoned. We live in a relatively populated town, so there's no use trying to figure out where the bees were poisoned. Each bee can travel up to 5 miles from the hive searching for food.

I recently discovered that there are some experienced bee keepers at my work, so I'll ask them what they think tomorrow.

I grabbed the Apiguard tray while I was in there, the bees must have finished off the medication before the massacre.

Lets end on a positive note though, so here is Pauline in a bee suit! Dad only got to wear a veil but he took it off before I snapped a photo.