Reading the article, there is something that seems odd to me which maybe Redfrog or others could help clarify. It hypes and mystifies the disappearance. Do beekeepers come to their hive and open up the box and see or expect to see dead bees in the hive? The limited knowledge I have of them is that the bees clean out the dead bees so one would expect to find very few dead bees in the box. As in, the last one dead can't sweep the floor.
To give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup carried in tanker-sized trucks costing $12,000 per load.
In light of what crater just posted, could that be the reason? I mean, how much sense does it make to give bees that of which they are intended to do -- make sweetness? Almost seems as if it were possible, they would give them steroids and burn them out early for a profit.
There was a local writer of the newspaper which this was the first year of her having bees and she described how she fed them sugar water. I questioned her if that was wise. She said "they" told her to feed them it and that's what everyone traditionally does. The bees are dead, now. Could be the problem.