It Continues

Late yesterday I went out and washed away all of the diatomaceous earth. There were no additional dead bees that I noticed.

I went out today and found more dead bees.

I had swept up all the bees around the entrance except those in the circular space. All of the others are newly dead/.

This is the way they are acting on the ground.

There is little or no activity around the hive entrance. I wiped off the dead bees and installed an entry limiter. I will get back out and for another hive check later. One note suggested worker bee die-off. Maybe, I have no experience with that. The weather has not been too hot. In fact I swear we have missed most of the Summer, especially the dog days of August. When I get back out I will try and get a close-up shot of the bees on the ground to see if they look tattered.

ADDED NOTE: Maybe they are tossing the workers out. I have been back out several times and there do not seem to be any added deaths this afternoon . In the morning they were staggering and flying on their backs all over the place. None of that now. I had put the entrance limiter on and there was more activity around that. When I got closer one or two bees seemed annoyed so I have removed it. Since then there has been more activity which I think is orientation. Later this evening I will go and remove the carnage so I can gauge it better tomorrow.