spray poisoning?

I had a message from a member of our association who had her bees at the association apiary until recently. Lately her bees have been distinctly sick, following spraying of osr on a field within visible distance of the apiary. The apiary is on the edge of woodland and the farmer doing the spraying may not have been aware of its presence.
The symptoms she is seeing are as follows from her message.

" They're confused, struggle and poke heads through floor, or hang on fence and die, tongues outstretched, not taking stores in brood, day olds have died too. They bringing in rapeseed pollen. "

She has had the colony inspected for disease and our experienced competent beeks can find no signs of traditional diseases and putting the inspection board in for a few days had infinitesimal small varroa drop. Microscope examination did not reveal any other problems.
I've not been able to go to the apiary but from afar I have suggested she remove any newly collected frames of nectar or freshly capped honey then feed 1:1 syrup on the basis that the new stores may be contaminated and if the bees try to feed contaminated material it will likely be lethal to the colony. The Queen is still present and is laying. Hopefully she is not damaged by the possible poisoning.
Any suggestions for increasing the chances of getting the colony through this trauma?

If fungicides have been used it can cause the bees to starve to death with full stomachs.
The fungicide kills off fungus in the bees digestive system leaving them unable to digest food.
Nosema or other nasties may develop when the bees are weakened and finish the job.
Sadly it isn't uncommon. A friend has lost 6 hives in the same way.
Try spraying them with thymolated 1:1 syrup and hope for the best is about all you can do.
1 tsp of hm's recipe in a ltr spray, spray them every couple of days. It may not work but it's all I can think of and it will keep nosema at bay.

"I have suggested she remove any newly collected frames of nectar or freshly capped honey then feed 1:1 syrup on the basis that the new stores may be contaminated and if the bees try to feed contaminated material it will likely be lethal to the colony."
good thinking there.

Forgot to mention the highest levels of toxins are likely to be in the bee bread/pollen stores.
If possible remove them and replace with some from a healthy colony.

if field has just been sprayed it will maintain its toxicity for about 48 - 72 hours before starting to decrease.

chrisb said:

if field has just been sprayed it will maintain its toxicity for about 48 - 72 hours before starting to decrease.

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As I have been informed the spraying took place a couple of weeks ago now. The hive has been moved away to quarantine. Pity I'm still restricted in travelling so I can only rely on information from the lady owner who started beekeeping last spring.
It's dismaying for her as she had a healthy new colony last autumn which was really good natured.
If it doesn't pull through I'll hope this year produces another regular supply of incoming swarms from the non intervention beek in my village so I can restock her.

This is a sad mistake. When will we learn that if pesticides hurt the bees and other
pollinators it could have have long term health effects on people too.

Gilberdyke John said:

As I have been informed the spraying took place a couple of weeks ago now. The hive has been moved away to quarantine. Pity I'm still restricted in travelling so I can only rely on information from the lady owner who started beekeeping last spring.
It's dismaying for her as she had a healthy new colony last autumn which was really good natured.
If it doesn't pull through I'll hope this year produces another regular supply of incoming swarms from the non intervention beek in my village so I can restock her.

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I wish her the best of luck,

She should collect a few bee samples and send them off to be tested.

Welcome to the world of keeping bees in an agricultural setting.
Wait til the avadex gets sprayed for black grass. That stuff is lethal but has been approved for use again.
A Break crop of beans or sugar beet is being grown so that avadex can be used.
Yay field beans i can get loads of honey, Oh bugger my foragers are all dead...

jenkinsbrynmair said:

She should collect a few bee samples and send them off to be tested.

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I've organised a visit to her hive tomorrow so I can see it for myself. I'm taking her some Hivemakers recipe and a trigger sprayer for thin syrup plus a comb to drag a sample of drone brood (if present) out to look for any varroa. I'll bring a few bees back to do my own microscope check for nosema as well just to eliminate other factors really.

There has been a big rise in the incidence of CBPV in recent years, and that can often bee mistaken for a spray kill problem at first glance.

jenkinsbrynmair said:

She should collect a few bee samples and send them off to be tested.

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not good, will man ever learn.

taking into account some of the things I have seen in life but wish I had not, i can only come up with the answer " no"

Hivemaker. said:

There has been a big rise in the incidence of CBPV in recent years, and that can often bee mistaken for a spray kill problem at first glance.

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mine are on 2 farms and I have never had a problem with my bees. is it luck

Cpbv?

TOBY-3652 said:

mine are on 2 farms and I have never had a problem with my bees. is it luck

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Reckon so.

Itchy said:

Cpbv?

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Chronic bee paralysis virus.

Itchy said:

Cpbv?

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You might like to read Tom Bick's thread "Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus" from a couple of years ago. The pictures have vanished, he might have them on his blog.
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=29505

I met the hive owner this morning and the sun was shining which had warmed the hive such that bees were flying.
I discovered that there had been a variety of advices given, some better than others.
The wooden hive consisted of a bottom entrance omf floor, two brood boxes (top one added this spring with a vague idea of carrying out a Bailey comb change but apart from being an extra space full of frames of foundation served no useful purpose that I could see)
On top of the crownboard was a rapid feeder filled with 2:1 thick syrup but being studiously ignored by the bees. The whole hive wrapped with bubblewrap in an attempt to retain some heat.
We carried out a quick full inspection in the sun. (it went in towards the end of the checks
The end frames consisted of drawn comb, mostly empty but with patches of last years stores still capped. In total the residual capped stores amounted to approximately 1.5 sides of sealed comb. I scratched the surface of the contents to discover most is liquid honey.
Moving inwards there were three frames partly containing collected nectar. Some of these containing eggs, larvae in progressive sizes with healthy colour and the blue queen was present and moving across the comb with retinue of bees.
I could not see signs of dwv or other obvious problems on the comb or brood diseases. There were patches of drone comb and I used a comb on some of these to inspect the larvae for varroa. None were found in any of the drone larvae sampled.
During the inspection we sprayed the bees with thymolised thin syrup using Hivemakers recipe..
There were 2 well laid frames of healthily coloured capped worker brood both sides and these had an odd opened cell but were generally dense and even.
Sadly the omf had a thick covering of dead bees but in general the corpses had normal wing arrangements. Amongst the whole layer of corpses I managed to find 14 which were black and shiny, possibly comprising 2 or 3 percent of the layer.
On the floor in front of the hive were a few dead bees and a couple of undertakers struggling to move them away.
I started to wonder if the omf layer was symptomatic of early season losses if the layer of bees had been present for some time but I was advised it had been cleaned two weeks ago.
I've brought a sample of the corpses, sealed in a poly bag to look at under the microscope and further research.
Initial thoughts are if the queen is laying a good pattern, BIAS is present and foraging is taking place the colony may be over the worst and could recover even if it has had a severe setback.
We have reassembled the hive with only one brood box under the crownboard since there is plenty of room for laying at present. Feed will be kept on top for now but diluted to 1:1 which the bees can feed from. I feel the colony has more chance of survival without the empty wasted space above. The comb is only two years old and my opinion is asking the bees to generate a brood box full of comb to carry out a comb change is unreasonable so the Bailey change is abandoned.
The hive is wrapped again in bubblewrap and we will monitor activity. Next week is expected to be warmer which can only help.
I'm hoping the owner avoids multiple adviser syndrome which leaves everything adrift

My hat of to you GJ, you have been a gentleman and a scholar to the person.
i hope everything pulls back up to strength