Agitated Bees Falling in front of hive

20 to 50 bees a day walk out of the hive and fall in front of it. There legs are waving about and mostly die with their tongue’s out. This has been happening for about a month. Upon inspection there were no obvious problems inside the hive. Any suggestions as to what this might be?
Hopefully the forum will let me upload a video soon ?

You can’t upload videos. Add it to YouTube and post the link.

Could be poisoning - it sounds like a limited number of bees, not like someone sprayed your hive directly.

Any other strange landing board activity?

A video can be seen by clicking the following link.

Welcome John, sorry for the circumstances. So awful to watch! Yes, agitation and inability to retract the proboscis are signs of poisoning by pesticides. Must be a foraging area somewhere in your 5 mile radius that has been treated.

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Hi Eva,

Thank you for comments in regard to my video, that was exactly my thought but wanted to confirm.
Would you recommend relocating the hive or waiting longer, this has been happening for over a month now despite the regular rainfall?

John

Well, the first thing that comes to my mind in your situation would be to find the source and raise hell :triumph: - but yes I suppose relocating is the most realistic and effective solution. Unless they are using a banned item or at the wrong time of year and are eligible for a fat fine! It would make sense to try to find the poison area either way so you don’t end up within the same radius. A google earth search for larger ag operations?