dead bees

[teebo]

I was checking in front of my hives and found alot of dead bees that looked to be drones, we just had 3 nights in a roll of tempatures down in the teens after about 2 weeks of 70s and 80s day is this normal for the drones to die?

[tillie]

Hi Teebo,

I too have dead bees in front of my two hives.  I counted 40 bees in front of one hive and at least 60 bees in front of the second hive.  My third hive who lived through the winter and is much smaller in number has only 5 bees dead in front of it. 

My guess is that the dead bees in front of the two hives established by nucs about 1 month ago, died in the cold.  We have had two nights of temps in the 20s followed by two nights of 30 and 31 degree nights.  I think these bees were either the ones who were on the fringes of the cluster or who died in the hive over the last four days and they are just now being cleaned out.  With the brood frames from the nuc, there was a lot of area to keep warm.  The older hive has a small brood nest and this wasn't as much for them to keep warm, thus less deaths?

I was relieved not to see chilled brood cast out in front of either hive.  Probably the dead girls gave their lives keeping the babies warm????

Linda T in Atlanta where the temps are finally more normal today

[Michael Bush]

If the weather is cold and stores are low they will throw out the drones rather than feed them.

[teebo]

I gave each hive about a quart of 1to1 sugar water and will have to wait until thursday before I can open the hives to check on storage.