Cleaning House

[Mikey N.C.]

Was 19°f. This morning. 40 at 3:00

Bee's a little in 1, and real good in 2nd box.
Cleaning out dead bees.  What is the cause of the dead bees in the hive. ?
We were below 32° for about 32-42? hrs.

[Bakersdozen]

A handful of dead bees at the entrance or on the ground, during winter, is natural attrition and nothing to worry about.  Honey bees die in winter too, just not as quickly as spring/summer bees that forage.   Honey bees going in to winter tend to live longer too.  I would even say that a handful of dead bees is a good sign.  That means that there are healthy bees still inside and they are housekeeping.  Sickly bees or a queenless colony are not concerned with removing the dead and keeping things tidy.  It's probably a good idea to inspect those dead bees to see if one of them was the queen.

[Jacobs]

Bees age out and die all through the year.  In warmer weather, bees may crawl away from the hives or dead bees in the hive may be carried off by other bees.  During longer cold periods or rainy periods, the dead or dying build up.  If you are not seeing large numbers in front of the hive, it is probably normal die off of older bees.

[Mikey N.C.]

Last yr. feral hive (swarm catch) in spring ,
drug out about 5-6 cups of dead bees.  They had small opening of wood reducer.
Makes me wonder,  in my climate do i need to open up entrance more?

[Jacobs]

I have the reducers on my hives with the larger opening.  If one is being strongly probed or has robbing going on this time of year, there is a decent probability that the target hive has queen issues and we don't get so cold that the small opening is needed for warmth.    If I saw the number of dead bees out front that you are seeing, I would be concerned IF you mean that you have seen this many dragged out in a short period.  If that is your estimate of removals for the season so far, it would still be significant, but not quite as worrisome if the hive had a really large population going into winter.  Not saying that this is your problem, but if a hive has issues with parasitic mite syndrome,  a strong hive can collapse in just a couple of weeks. 

[Mikey N.C.]

No that was a hive that over wintered last year, with reducer set with small opening. 
They drug that many dead bees out this spring. I thought that if bees weren't able to get out much that ,small opening would be better for air draft . Last yr. Was alot colder this yr. temps. have been swinging up an down . Yesterday morning 19° today
60° . thanks for info.