The SASA Results are in:
Varroa mites: No mites present
Acarine disease: Negative
Nosema sp: Negative

They suggest that the "likely cause of this colony loss was fermented stores and subsequent starvation. This would explain the signs of dysentery, plus the uncapped but uneaten stores which the bees had subsequently moved above"


The brood box had plenty of frames of honey stores which was mainly heather, the super had much less. However for a short while in the autumn (as they were not off the heather until the very end of September) they were given syrup. This hive did not take much of it down. I am hedging a guess that they used the super frames to store the syrup which was easier to consume (they also ate about 1/3 of the fondant which was about a 2kg block).
So why did the honey stores ferment? and what do I do in future to prevent this happening? Another guess would be that possibly I could remove some of the frames from the brood box in the late summer, early autumn and give them some drawn frames to store syrup in.