Since we don't know the cause of death, I don't think it's necessary to scorch the hive bodies at this point.  If it was AFB, I'd say yes, but we don't know that.

Thanks Mark and Eddie. We went over this morning to get some pictures to fill out the task force form. I have a freezer lined up with to treat the frames this week and was thinking about scorching the inside of the boxes as well. Is that a good idea, or unnecessary?

Hi Jason.  I'm sorry to hear about your son's hive -- I'm sure this must be very disappointing to him and other family members.  Sometimes beekeepers can do everything right and nonetheless, bad things happen.  It’s hard to tell, of course, what happened to your colony without additional information.  It does not sound like they died for lack of food stores.  Closeup pictures of the comb of where the brood last resided can be very helpful  One possible cause would be varroa infestation and the presence of varroa feces in former brood cells can be a leading indicator of this.  Might I ask if the colony was treated for mites in fall AND winter? 

In any case, the only way to help determine cause of death is a closeup inspection.  On the bottom of the TVBA home page is a link to the Beekeeper Task Force to request help, for free.  Pictures of the brood frames (not the moldy ones) and closeup pictures of the former brood cells showing the tops and sides of the cells (where varroa poop is found) would be helpful.  If you have pictures of sunken cappings for ‘melted” down brood, these pictures are also useful.

Let me know if continue to need help.  I live near 158^th and Walker Dr. in Beaverton.

My 13 year old, Levi, is still in his first year keeping bees. This was a late swarm catch last summer and it did ok over winter. We were seeing some losses in Feb, March, but the queen was still laying and there were still a lot of stores. Today he checked on them and they are all dead. There is still some capped brood and plenty of honey still. There is quite a bit of green mold in the hive. 

It was kind of late this evening, so I didn't get to see much before it was dark and have not taken any pictures. Levi is pretty sad about it. This is part of his 8th grade project. I am going to put in an order for a nuc through the club and we will get him back up and running. 

I could use some help figuring out if it will be safe to put the nuc in these boxes still or if they need to be scrapped.  Any suggestions? We have not had a chance to do our own research yet.