I think I have dysentery in my hive.
What do you think and what should I do?
Could this have led to kicking the drones out and the death of my queen?
It looks suspicious, but I would want a proper diagnosis before treating. It could be a mixture of propolis and dirty rain, if it has been wet.
Does your bee club have anyone with a microscope? Nosema is pretty easy to diagnose if they do. If not, you can send a sample of bees to the USDA, and they will do a free analysis for you:
https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md/beltsville-agricultural-research-center/bee-research-laboratory/docs/bee-disease-diagnosis-service/
In the US, the usual treatment for Nosema is Fumagilin. However, I prefer to stay away from synthetic chemicals when possible, so I would try @Dee’s method first:
Pre mix
30g thymol crystals placed in honey jar, add 150 ml of isopropyl alcohol to the crystals, place jar into a water bath of boiling water to speed up the dissolving process.
In another jar pour in 140 ml of boiling water and add 1 teaspoon of lecithin granules, stir well, and place this jar into a water bath of boiling water, stirring often for about ten minutes or so until most of the lecithin granules have dissolved, you can then strain this mixture through a tea strainer or similar to remove any granules that have not dissolved fully, then simply add the dissolved thymol to this mix, and shake well, will look just like a jar of milk.
5ml of pre mix to 1L of 1:1 syrup lightly sprayed over the bees and combs every 4 days three times
1ml of pre mix to each litre of autumn syrup protects against nosema over winter
As you can see, it is a fair bit of effort, so it is worth making sure the diagnosis is correct first.
I doubt it. I think your queen died of old age.
Bee Club 
I should be a member of a bee club? 
… I have a microscope. What am I looking for. I suspect that if I send it to the USDA I will get the results just after the nick of time.
Will my kids do that to me in a few years time?
Randy Oliver has a good article with photos on his web site:
Can I just say that the thymol spray really does work. If it is N apis you will see a lot of dysentery on the frames inside as well. You sometimes see lots of bee poop outside if the bees have been confined by bad weather and this is normal. They don’t soil inside the hive but do as soon as they get out.
A bad dose of nosema will do the queen in though it could just be a simple supersedure.
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As @Dee says, it has to be really bad before it will do the queen in. The reason is that the infection multiplies in workers as they age. Nurse bees tend not to have a high Nosema load, so if you are looking for it, they are the worst age bee to sample. Nurse bees feed the queen, so generally she will not get a lot of infective organisms from being fed. Of course, if the infection is severe enough for long enough, the queen will eventually be fed a lot of bad bugs over time, and she lives long enough (compared with workers) for that to be lethal.
As @lipinsky is a paramedic, I thought the details of how it hits a colony might be interesting. 
Are you a queen? Historically that is a high-risk role for lethality from offspring… 
I don’t have kids, but in any case, I am just a princess, according to my husband. 
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Hey @Dee, it just struck me. Does 30 grams of thymol dissolve in just 5 ml of isopropanol? That is around 2 heaped tablespoons of crystals in 1 teaspoon of liquid! I am not doubting you, just interested. It must be a supersaturated solution. 
Oh, and how long can you keep the pre-mix? Days, weeks, months?
BTW, I’m a management consultant by day.
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Para-, Pseudo-, Sorta- medical then
We have something in common. On the weekends, I am a management consultant for our hives.
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Heavens you’re right. It should be 150 ml. How did that happen? Sorry
Premix lasts forever kept in a screw top jar in a dark cupboard. Sometimes you get a thinfilm of oil on top so just shake it in
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That’s totally normal poop-age. Not to worry. In many areas it’s been a bad year for unexplained queen disappearance. Did your bees make any attempt to replace the queen? Are you sure she’s gone?
Cheers,
Kristina
Boulder, CO, USA
Ha! Not sure about qweenie … what do you think …
I guess you didn’t see my other post 
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Any news from the microscopy? 
Right, I missed that! I’d say your queen is indeed gone. Are they making
a new one?
They made a beauty, according to another thread.
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I haven’t had a chance to play mad scientist. Have been dealing with other aspects of life.
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