Many new beekeepers are concerned about dead bees in winter, especially the ones that accumulate on or near the hive entrance. Every week I receive several questions about this, so I want to elaborate.
Even in the healthiest of colonies, bees die every single day. According to Bees of the World (O’Toole and Raw), a normal-sized colony loses about a thousand bees per day in the summer. These losses are replaced by a busy queen that may lay upwards of 1500 eggs per day. Most of the summer losses are foragers that die on the job and we never even notice them. Since they are out of sight and out of mind, most beekeepers aren’t too concerned about these daily losses.
Bees die in winter, too
But bees continue to die every day even in winter. The losses are not as high because the bees are not foraging and because winter bees have special adaptations that allow them to live longer than summer bees. Still, many die every day, and they die at home where we can see them lying on the landing board or peppering the snow.
If you consider that your healthy colony may have 50,000 or maybe even 60,000 members going into the fall but may have only 20,000 come spring (WSU Extension) somewhere along the line you lost 30,000 to 40,000 bees. That’s a bunch.
For the sake of argument, I’ll take the smaller number of 30,000 and divide it by 182, which is the number of days in October, November, December, January, February, and March. That gives me 164 bee deaths per day. The larger number of 40,000 gives me 220 bee deaths per day.
Hauling out the dead is normal
Of course, these numbers are approximations. But most people who write to me are concerned about “five or six dead bees” on the landing board or “two dozen dead bees on the snow.” As you can see, those numbers are just natural attrition and are nothing to worry about.
For years now my own hives have been within a short walk of my house. Nearly every day I walk up there (for my benefit more than theirs) and I flick the dead bees off the landing boards. What I’ve noticed is that a new pile of bees every day is a signal that all is well inside. Only a healthy colony has the manpower—er, bee power—to dispatch undertaker bees to clean up the bodies. On warmer days they fly them off and drop them on the ground, but on colder days they just shove them out the entrance. In either case, all is well.
Now I begin to get concerned when I see no bodies because then I wonder if the colony is as strong as it should be. In fact, in several instances, this was my first clue of a failing colony. It’s not a sure thing, but it is a piece of information you can use when making management decisions or when you are trying to decide if you should peek inside.
Look before you flick
But don’t forget to look before you flick. A couple of years ago, I found the queen among the five or six dead bees at the entrance. I was able to combine that queenless hive with a nuc in the middle of winter, and I ended up with a vibrant, healthy colony by spring.
Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite
sugar cakes (top left).” class=”wp-image-9005″/>
Thank you! As a first year beek, I found this information to be very comforting. I just found your blog a few weeks ago and have really enjoyed catching up!
I worry about my bees because here in central Idaho the winter is cold. Lately, single digits and below and low teens in the day. (Hope it warms up). I even considered putting a reptile heater in to warm up the hive. (My wife talked me out of it. Said that God created bees and they have survived this long, so they probably will survive this winter [hope so]). When it was warmer I placed Reese patties in the hive and later candy boards. Well, I really look forward to spring. Your pictures give me hope. I don’t have that many dead bees. I would be interested on any comments about successful overwintering of bees in cold climates. I do know that bees are raised in these inhospitable conditions.
Willow Creek Honey
Ken,
The problem with heating hives is that it can fool the bees into thinking it is warm outside. If they fly out of the hive in those temperatures they will be unable to return and they will die. Wives are always right.
It’s interesting how we see something we don’t understand and assume there is a problem. More often than not it is something normal or benign.
Rusty, Thank You, for another great post.
Rusty,
You mentioned this briefly in an earlier post, and it’s a good thing. Yesterday one hive had several dozen dead at the entrance, and I surely would have panicked if I hadn’t read that.
But elsewhere you advise entrance reducers and mouse guards for winter. Should we remove those to brush the dead bees out? What about all the bodies on the screens? Leave them there till warmer weather?
Adding a note of my own advice: before setting up with bees, contact your county extension office, the best way to find a local bee club. Not only information but hands-on help may be available. I now have the luxury of a young couple, currently without bees of their own, to help pop lids off to replace sugar, pollen & grease patties. It makes a big difference to working quickly in marginal weather. If all goes well, I’ll “pay” them with some splits from mine in spring.
And a note to clubs: we’re considering a “Friends” level membership, to get some learners involved without having to commit to hives.
It’s all about community!
Nan
Nan,
Once or twice during the winter, I take out the reducers and mouse guards and then reach in as far as possible with a stick or hive tool and sweep out as many dead as I can. In thirty seconds or so I can pull out a thick pile and then I put the hive back together. It is especially important that their path to the entrance is not blocked by dead bees. You want them to be able to take cleansing flights on warm days and you want them to have fresh air and good ventilation.
Rusty,
Very timely posting. Thanks a bunch.
I have a new hive (1st winter) and it has been so cold I can’t open the hive to gauge their health. I find several dead bees on the landing board each day when I look the hive over. They started the winter (southeast Texas) with one full mid-depth super full, but I would like to know how much has been consumed. I have installed an entrance reducer and have been feeding 1 cup water to 2 cups sugar which lasts about two weeks.
Jper….
Thank you for your post. I was starting to worry as a first year beekeeper in my backyard. I did feed them today and they finished 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water in less than a day. I thought that since they had 2 deeps full before winter that I wouldn’t need to feed, but man did that go fast. Should I keep feeding in the winter? I’m worried about it raising the moisture levels in the hive.
Olof,
Well, if they need the feed then you have to feed them. Excess moisture is not good, but dry and dead is not good either. If you get a warmish day, you can open the hive and try to put the remaining frames of honey closer to the cluster. But if they are near the top of their hive and there is no honey nearby, you’ll have to feed them to save them.
I have one beehive. It had set in my yard several years empty. Then about four years ago a swarm took up residence in it. They thrived until last spring. Early in the spring they had been working merrily along until one day I saw many hundreds dead in front of the hive. It went downhill from then. Needless to say the wax worms and hive beetles finished them off.
I had intended to destroy the empty hive but before I did a new swarm went and cleaned it out. That was last spring. I had issues with robbers in the fall but the swarm defeated them and I feed them sugar syrup and the hive was very heavy. We have had a mild winter and the bees continued working until three days ago when the temperature dropped to 28. Yesterday I looked at them and there were hundreds dead on the ground. I swept them away and this morning more dead, maybe 100. I watched the hive a while in the dark and saw that the bees are walking out of the hive and jumping to the ground where they die in about a minute. They look healthy. There are a few drones but most are workers.
I am going to destroy the empty hive this time when bees are completely gone.
I would like to have some idea as to what is wrong. Working and flying one day and dead the next.
James,
The first die-off you mention sounds a lot like a pesticide kill, but too late now to know for sure.
The most recent problem sounds different. It is impossible to tell from here, but bees that have been affected with a virus (such as those carried by Varroa) will sometimes fly out and die. It’s as if they know they are ill and so die away from the hive to keep the disease away from the hive. A bad infestation of mites can take down a large and healthy hive in a week. Having them come out at night, though, is weird. Where do you live?
Rusty, thank you once again for a great post! Now I’m not so worried about the quantity of dead that have accumulated this winter, I am still a little concerned with how many bees remain alive and whether they’ll make it through the winter dying off at the rate they are. The cluster seems to have moved up pretty quickly in the boxes – it almost seemed like the top of it ate through the newspaper I had resting on the top of the bars and is now eating the sugar/water/ProHealth mix I placed there a few days ago. That means they’re right up against the canvas of my quilt box (there were bees clinging to the underneath). I haven’t opened the boxes yet to see what is going on in the middle (I know the bottom box is empty). because I haven’t wanted to break their cluster. Any advice on how to assess their state? Or should I just keep putting sugar in that top rim box to keep them fed?
Anna,
I’m always hesitant to open them up in the cold, but if they are eating the sugar, that is certainly a good sign.
I live in San Francisco so winter is not as harsh as in other parts of the country and there is just about year round sources of pollen.
I started my hive last April and decided to go the 3 deep route and left the honey in the hive supers alone figuring it should give my bees a good store to get them through winter.
About 6 weeks ago we had temps at night hovering around the mid 30’s which is unusual for us (normally mid to high 40’s). I noticed a lot of bees on the screened bottom board and figured it was normal? Hive activity has slowed but they are still foraging. Looked today underneath and still saw a number of dead bees down there, but it doesn’t look like a massive number? I am wondering if the cadaver bees were able to clear out the batch from weeks earlier – the dead bees look like old bees mainly with some new dead.
Hard part being a first timer at all this is I have no previous experience to judge by. I am guessing/hoping all is working okay for the bees as long as I am seeing foraging and occasional orientation flights?
Do I need to scoop out the dead bees on the screened bottom or is it best to let the bees work on it?
Any encouragement or tips would be appreciated. The configuration of my hive is as follows: 3 deeps, 2 supers, screened bottom board sitting under a slatted rack and inner screened top cover. I’m not feeding syrup as they seem to be foraging just fine.
Eddie,
There are always going to be dead bees because some will die everyday. The only time I clean the bottom board in the winter is if the entrance gets blocked. If so, I just pull out the entrance reducer and run a stick or hive tool in there and scrape out enough bodies that the lower entrance is no longer blocked.
Just because bees are foraging for food doesn’t mean they are finding anything. They may be finding it, especially in your area. But don’t assume they have enough food, check to be sure they do.
Many thanks for the reply Rusty! 🙂 Supposedly (according to local SF beekeepers), there is a steady nectar flow from the Eucalyptus trees in our area that last from October to late May. There is a large Eucalyptus grove just a block and a half up from my house. Always there are flowers of some variety blooming.
The bees seem to be mostly coming back with their pollen baskets full – not sure how to tell whether they are carrying nectar too?
I checked a little after I saw your post and it looks like they have the three deeps utilized (with space for expansion on nearby frames). Sure wish I had more experience at this. I’m going to be adding a second hive in another part of my garden in late April – mainly so that I will have a ‘reference’ hive to compare to.
Hello!
Do you have a photo of what a winter cluster of bees looks like? I peeked into my hive today (Halloween– not winter, but very wet here) and I was alarmed at how small the cluster looks. It is very hard to gauge the population of a cluster, though… what I had thought was hundreds may have been thousands. It would be helpful to see what a winter cluster looks like from the inside!
Justine,
No, I don’t have a photo. But imagine the cluster is shaped like a basketball. When you open the lid, you are just seeing the top of the curved outer shell. It is probably bigger than you imagine. Then too, the cluster expands or contracts with changes in temperature. It is bigger in warm weather and smaller in cold weather. This is one way the bees regulate the internal temperature.
Rusty-
This morning I found a queen outside with a few other dead bees. As is normal, I find several everyday, but today I found the queen. Should I assume this hive is queenless or were there two queens? Or was this a late hatched queen who decided to take a mating flight? It’s cold and worst of all foggy here. Any suggestions? I have 3 other hives. One is an 8 frame and this one is a 10 frame. Of the other two, one is really mean!! but hardy.
All of my hives superseded this year and I have had lots of “queen events”! Suggestion? It’s November 29th!!!
Thank you!!
Miss Marianne,
If it were me, I would assume the hive is queenless. I’ve only found a dead queen on the landing board in winter one time, and I immediately combined that hive with another using newspaper. The combined hive did well.
Sometimes a colony can have more than one queen, but the situation usually doesn’t last long. A queen “hatched” in the last month or two or three, depending on where you live, wouldn’t be able to mate in any case. Here, my drones were mostly gone by the end of August. I saw a few in September, but open mating late in the year is problematic.
If you get a warmish day, you can quickly check through the frames, but I doubt you will find another queen. And a virgin queen is useless. Whatever you do, don’t wait too long or you will begin to get laying workers.
Rusty,
Thanks for your prompt reply to my “problem”! Since it’s cold and going through the hive sounds like a recipe for making things worse I have decided to combine. Now, I have a question about that!
I am planning on taking the queenless hive and moving it over to a QR hive. That means I need to take off the precious inner cover of my QR hive to put newspaper on and then the hive box from the now queenless colony?
So, I’m thinking to leave the queenless inner cover in place with its propolis seal and move it over. Depending on what I find… I’m sort of hoping they have all moved into the top box and I can remove the bottom box and clean it out, look for clues and store any drawn comb I find. But if they are in two boxes I will move both boxes on top of their new home. Does that sound like a plan to you? I’m just trying to figure out a way to leave the inner cover undisturbed. We are getting some dry weather the next couple of days. But the temp is low, 52 max for the day. Any suggestions or insights you have are appreciated!
Hopefully these bees will bolster my other hive and give them an even better chance at being robust in the spring. I guess I can make a split.
So, one more question. I have a very aggressive hive that was from a swarm I caught last March. They are hardy but small. If I combine with those bees I am thinking they might kill the new bees since they are really aggressive! I would like to re-queen that hive since they are so aggressive and thought that I would do that in the spring. However, being that they are a strong hive, would they benefit each other? more numbers? strong instincts? Thoughts? The last thing I want is more aggressive bees!!! But I am wanting these bees to go to a strong home. Just wondering if the temperament is different in the winter and they would more readily accept a colony? My other option is a hive that is not as strong but mellow.
Thanks Rusty!
Miss Marianne,
Yes, you will have to remove the inner cover from the lower hive and replace it with newspaper. However, I don’t think of it as “precious.” If we become so averse to breaking the propolis seal that we fail to practice good beekeeping, then the inner cover hinders rather than enhances colony health. I never hesitate to break a propolis seal if I need to see or do something.
Furthermore, the weight of the hive boxes and the heat from inside the hive quickly reseals the hive. To me, it is a non-issue. And I consider 52 F degrees warm, nearly flying weather. Don’t worry about it.
Now your second question. I don’t think you can assume that a colony which is aggressive towards humans and/or pets is also aggressive toward other honey bees. Maybe it is, but I think you may be jumping to conclusions. At any rate, the reason for the newspaper is to allow the queen’s pheromones to slowly circulate through the two hives, so that all the bees “smell alike,” if you will. Once the pheromones are circulated throughout the two colonies, they will accept each other as nest mates. That’s the reason for doing it.
I think they will combine just fine. Then, come spring, you can replace the aggressive queen or split the hive as you mentioned and re-queen both halves. The more immediate problem is to get the queenless colony combined with another.
Yesterday I also had a ‘queen event’ I am sad to say. I was treating my 7 hives with oxalic acid vapor and unfortunately when I pulled the spoon out I was presented with a half cremated queen. Fortunately I am aware of the loss and also fortuitously I came across your site today and I feel that I have some support in what direction to take to correct the loss. I will combine the hive with another using newspaper, the hives are all 2 deep – brood box with deep honey super on top – would you recommend adding both supers to make the hive 4 deep?
Bee Nice,
That is really sad. You can do it either way, but just remember that twice the bees will eat almost twice the food. So if you decide to give just one super, monitor their food carefully in case they go through it faster than you expect.
I feel sorry about your queen bee. As an engineer, it was apparent when I saw that type of fumigator heater, that it had implications that due to its design could be very detrimental when heating the powder/crystals of oxalic acid. I sent mine back to Amazon and made a more complex heater similar to the much more expensive sublimator which has minimal chance of cremating bees by the fact that only a tiny amount of bare hot copper tube protrudes into the hive through the wood. It is obvious that if the user knows the thickness of the wood then a clamp around the inserted tub can be adjusted so that no hot metal whatsoever goes into the hive!
It has been seen on a regular basis that oxalic acid is heated way beyond the ‘correct’ temperature that it changes to fume.
A very experienced and kind beekeeping professional on Youtube can be seen in his demo that the device is at 230 C. He like many others is under the ‘impression’ that due to the device being used by many a professional beekeeper it can be used with apparent safety out ‘of the box’.
There is a video of a chap called Dennis a USA cleaver person and an experimenter. I believe that shows his experiments and is scientifically based whereby he heats oxalic acid to a critical temp which is 157 C. At that temperature, the oxalic acid does not form Formic acid and carbon monoxide.
Mind you cleaver Dr randy in California uses formic acid and oxalic acid and other applications to kill varroa.
It seems clear the less hot metal which intrudes the hive is better because after all isn’t beeswax flammable?
Rusty
Thanks for your great answers!! I’m on it. Just waiting for a break in the weather later today, and adding another sugar brick!
Happy Holidays!
Hey Rusty!!
I did it! The queenless hive I moved was full of bees!! Two boxes! The top box was pretty heavy with honey stores and that is now on the very top.
I added it to the other hive with newspaper as you suggested. It is now 4 high….deep, shallow, deep shallow but I’m going to strap it down. This is now a BIG hive, which I am very happy about. We didn’t lose many bees in the process, I had my sister-in-law help me. It was 45 degrees. But not any forecast for much warmer so I went with it. I am really happy I did it! Thanks for the encouragement.
Hi. Now in March, I find every day 8-15 dead bees in the ground in front of hives. Dead bees are black and with stretched abdomen. Help. What is happening?
Arjan,
What is happening is that some bees are dying and other bees are dumping them out on the ground. In winter you can expect dozens to die every day. In summer, a thousand or so die everyday, but you don’t notice them because they die out in the field.
It’s too cold for the living to carry out the dead. It’s normal, but when the weather is fine, we humans don’t notice.
Here in mid Michigan we are in a deep freeze (-7F this a.m. and forecasted high of 12F today). Near hives early this morning and decided to check entrances. Discovered one hive with several dead bees in the snow. What was unusual was that there were dead bees some 10-15 yards away from the hive. As i was looking around I saw two bees exit the hive from top venting hole and fly a few yards and drop in the snow. Any thoughts as to what is happening?
Roger,
It is common for bees that are old or ill to fly out of the hive to die. This keeps disease transmission down and it prevents the other bees from having to remove the bodies. It happens in all seasons, we just happen to see it when snow is on the ground.
Hi Rusty
Scraped dead bees out from my 3 hives today. I found dead queen in one of them. Here is my dilemma.
My friend thinking he was helping scraped bees out from my green hive before I could check the bees from the hive I scraped out of the yellow hive. There were not many dead bees in the yellow hive but several in the green. I believe the dead queen came from the green hive. That is one of the problems but even more so, the yellow hive which I could join the green hive with has 2 deep boxes but the problem is the green hive has 3 deep boxes. Not sure what to do. I would appreciate advice on this. I want to try and save my hive.
Linda,
Do you know anyone with an infrared camera? The easiest way to combine would be to find out where the bees are first, and then just combine boxes with bees. I’m sure there are not bees in all five boxes at this point.
Without a camera, you will just have to open the hives to discover where the bees are. Working quickly, just pull out the boxes without bees and set them aside, and using a piece of newspaper, combine the rest. If it’s a warmish day, you can move some honey frames around. If not, just combine and then later add feed.
It’s not an ideal situation, but you’ll just have to do the best you can.
Hi Rusty,
No infrared camera. If I put a double screened board between my queenright and queenless hive do you think the pheromones from the queenright hive might carry the other one through to spring until I can get a new queen?
Linda,
Honestly, I don’t know for sure. My guess is no. Some of the pheromones are passed along by rubbing and touching each other. Without that, I think the queenless colony will eventually produce laying workers.
Hi Rusty,
Sadly, I had a hive that survived my ham fisted cut-out and then a direct hit by a falling tree limb only to finally be blown over by a huge gust of wind. By the time I was able to get to it, all the foundationless comb had fallen out of the frames and all the bees were dead. I noticed that many of the cells contained bees with their heads inside and their rear ends sticking out, many were entirely inside the cell head first.
My question is, is this normal when the bees are dying of cold or do you think they were starving before being blown over. I had been feeding them going into winter and had placed some sugar cakes above the cluster as well as a moisture quilt on top of that.
Thank you for this site and wishing you a happy and prosperous new year.
Luis,
That’s a tough question, and I can only guess. If the colony was doing well and not starving when it was knocked over, I would expect the bees to huddle together in a cluster to stay warm. Since they were head-down in individual cells, I suspect they were already starving.
Luis…2 of my hives came out, after the below zero temperature except 1…I couldn’t hear any humming so I tapped on entrance..,nothing…I unwrapped and lifted up condensation box and listened…nothing…I grabbed my hive tool and all had died…all dead bees huddled together and many facing head first in cells…honey was right above them!!!! I was devastated and felt like a failure.,,I focused my attention on the surviving hives and double wrapped them…my bees knees are crossed for their survival.
Tammy,
It’s amazing how these little creatures work their way into one’s heart. My hive was a feral swarm that had settled in a bird house at my neighbors back yard.
My main focus was saving them from the exterminator. A coworker of mine keeps bees so he helped me with setting them up in a proper abode.
All seemed well through late summer and even after being crushed by that falling limb. I was able to re stack the boxes and refresh their sugar cakes, all went awry with the freezing wind and the tumble they took?
I’m still mourning and wondering if I did the right thing by intervening in the first place. Maybe time will help ease the feeling of having failed them.
Best wishes to all, may your hives fare well and prosper.
Luis,
I’m sorry you lost your bees. It makes me feel terrible.
I am new to beekeeping, in fact I will get my first bees this spring. Anxious to get started and to learning all I can.
Rusty,
Here in Rockford, Illinois we had a rare 50 degree day in mid-January so I opened my hive to see how the food situation was going. I bought a FLR camera and was taking thermal images in December, so all was right at that point. But even though I wrapped the hive, had a moisture quilt, two supers of honey, a bag of sugar and a slatted rack, they were all dead. I’ll use the honey myself but what shall I do with the frames that were in the lower deep? Some have brood cells on them. I don’t see any signs of other insects, moths, etc. Can I just leave them in place for the new bees in the spring to clean? And once I extract the honey can I just put those supers back on the hive, a welcome treat for the spring bees?
Thank you, your info and sense of humor have helped me much during my first year!
Dawn
Dawn,
Sudden collapse, lots of honey, small number of brood cells—the whole thing sounds like varroa mites.
Your new bees can clean up anything you leave in the hive, including the brood. But if you put wet (extracted) supers back on your hive, you’re bound to attract robbers, wasps, hive beetles, ants, earwigs, and mice. Anything and everything will be attracted to those fragrant frames.
If you decided to extract the honey, I would keep the frames inside and protected until you have bees. If you leave some of the honey frames intact, it will be easy to start your next colony.
Interesting. Here, our bees suffer varroa, there is much debate about only supporting colonies that can evolve resistance to them. Last season (we’re only third year keepers) our big hive with a one yearold queen started to chuck many dead and ‘crawlers’ (We had vapourised with oxalic midwinter) enoungh that we had to sweep them up. We concluded varroa paralysis virus and since we’re only garden beeks who are rubbish at finding queens decided to hold faith. They requeeened themselves and by Sept were a boiling box of bees with enough stores for winter. ? Interestingly, the split from this cololny did the same thing…..maybe some gene selection going on?
About 2 weeks ago we had our first above 45° day of the year. Upon approaching the hive I noticed many bees outside of the hive, falling off the landing board, flying off into nowhere. Needless to say I got very lucky with an early warm day due to the fact my hive had run out of food. I live in Northern MN and it has been fairly cold for long stretches. Today I did my fist full hive inspection and cleaning. Many, many bees have died, lots of waste on the bottom board but otherwise hive looks healthy.
I have double high brood boxes and noticed that the bees since fall have pretty much vacated the lower box. I found plenty of evidence of starved bees facing into the cells, abandoned brood, and bleeding untended nectar reserves. Is this normal for the hive to abandoned a portion of the hive during wintering?
Chris,
Yes, it’s extremely common. The bees cluster to stay warm. When the ambient temperatures are really cold, they can’t leave the cluster, even to get food or to tend brood that is outside of the cluster. Bees will starve with stored food only inches away. It is best to put an emergency food supply just above the cluster. Since heat rises, that it where the hive is warmest outside of the cluster.
I’m a first year Minnesota beekeeper and I’m been in the habit of clearing snow from my backyard hive’s lower entrance after every big snowfall and taking a stick to pluck out the dead ones accumulated at the entrance reducer. I find it disturbing that after I clear the entrance about a dozen bees fly out and die. Are they responding to my disturbance? Is my clearing the entrance doing more harm than good?
It’s possible.
Rusty thank you for this information! This is my first winter as a beekeeper here in Connecticut and like a new parent, I tend to check my hive frequently. Lately I have seen anywhere from a few to 20-30 dead bees at the door. I was debating and fretting that maybe I should use pipe warmers. Your blog has put me at ease as this seems to be part of the natural winter process. Thank you and have a Merry Christmas!
Hi Rusty,
Great article! This year, I decided to put my hives in a isolated, ventilated and heated room. Do you know if it is also normal to find dead bees on the ground if the bees are indoors? I am starting to worry because I see more and more on the floor everyday since I put them there. Do you have any experience with that? Thank you!
Annie,
Some bees die every day, whether they are inside or out. And since they don’t disappear into the grass, you are more likely to see them inside a building. Go easy on the heat, though. To much heat makes them want to fly, which doesn’t help.
Dear Rusty, Thanks so much for the pictures and encouraging words. I am a first year beekeeper. When I scooped out what seemed like hundreds of dead bees from the bottom board, thought my bees were all dead when I went out to the hive yesterday. I now have some hope that they might still be alive after reading your letters here. Is it abnormal for there to be dead bees on top of the top board as well though?
Thanks again! Katie in Massachusetts
Katie,
I don’t think it’s common to find a lot of dead up top, but possible. Try listening for bees or borrowing an IR camera, if you don’t have one.
Hello Rusty.
I am new to beekeeping and I have had my hive for about 10 months. Today, I noticed a number of bees amongst a number of white or translucent objects, which upon closer look appeared to be very young bees. I then saw one bee fly out of the hive with a very young bee and it appeared to be eating it. I live in the panhandle of Florida and the winter has been very mild. I have yet to look into the hive because it is raining, but I thought you might have some insight.
Thanks, Jim
Jim,
Not eating. When the undertaker bees are busy doing what they are supposed to be doing, you will see them haul out the dead or diseased and dump them outside. A colony that is weak or dying does not have the strength—or the bee-power, if you will—to do that task.
I can’t remember the number offhand, but some percentage of bees have birth defects or are poorly formed for some reason. I think it’s like 7%, although it could be higher. Also, bees that are infected with diseases or parasites are dumped. Also, a certain number of bees die every day from old age. This is all good. If the bodies weren’t carried out and dumped, the hive would smell rank and become disease-ridden.
Thanks Rusty. I will let you know what I see once I take a look in the hive. I’m comforted by your description. I have my fingers crossed.
Thanks, Jim
Rusty, you were spot-on. I checked on the hive and the bees were both numerous and vigorous. Thanks for the help! Jim
I haven’t seen my bees in a long time not even a single one at the entrance. Do they not break cluster if they have honey or would they be dead? I’m in Canada we’ve had a few plus days warmest was 12, but nights are negative and even days are not continuously plus. I thought some should have gone out to poop when it reached 12.
They definitely have honey and sugar. They are in a four-deep box hive. Thanks
Miro,
I agree you should see some activity on a 12-degree (54 F) day. I see entrance activity on days quite a bit colder than that, even if they are just peeking out. If you don’t have a thermal camera, try gently tapping on the exterior of the hive on one of the warmer days. If you hear nothing, they are probably dead.
Opened a hive during warm spell end of February. Why are there a lot of dead bees on top of the inner cover?
I can’t say from here, but perhaps it’s been too cold for the undertaker bees to carry out the dead.
I have lost 2 hives and am at a loss as to why. They went into the winter very strong and were treated for varroa mites using oxalic acid in a made-up kit from Thornes.
I have only one strong hive now and also one that has very few bees and a live queen which I am afraid is doomed. I have considered splitting the strong hive but that also failed. Last, do you have a suggestion as to how I might just save this small hive, a frame or two of bees from a strong hive with the queen in a cage to try to get them to accept her? Is she a virgin queen and not laying? There are so many variables. What is your view, Rusty?
My only suggestions: 1) You can try splitting the large colony again and introduce the surviving queen and the small amount of brood into the queenless half of the split using the newspaper method.
2) If you think the queen may not be laying, destroy that queen and do a split of the large colony, making sure you have eggs and young larvae in the queenless half and let them requeen themselves. Add the bees from the weak colony to the split.
3) Remove the failing queen and combine both colonies of bees into one.