Finding dead bees with lots of drones around hive entrance

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earthsoul

New Bee
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Messages
27
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0
Location
Llandysul
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
2
I have kept bees for a year, I moved my hive from my home 8 miles (as the crow flies) to a new home about 2 weeks ago, just before the weather turned so cold. They are in quite an exposed position so I have put pallets up each side of them to protect them from the wind, they are facing south and are able to fly straight out from the hive to field land unhindered!
They have been for cleansing flights as the wall behind has evidence of that!!!

But there seems to have been a regular number of dead bees around the entrance. There does seem to be a higher number of drones that is evident in the hive, I did sneak a peek inside and there are still bees feeding inside, I have fed them the last two days as I have been worried they may have been starving.

I use a WBC hive as this is double skinned so more able to withstand the temperatures in my area. The entrance plate has bee droppings evident on it as well as about 3-4 dead bees. I am not happy to do a full bee inspection as the weather is just too cold.

Could this be starvation? or the cold? or am I in danger of losing my colony?
 
A fair number of dead bees thrown out is normal as the overwintering bees are coming to the end of their life. You would not normally expect to find dead drones at this time of year. Maybe a drone laying queen or an old or failing queen that is laying too many drones or it is possible that laying workers are present. The only way to know is to carry out an inspection as soon as the weather is suitable. If you have access to a beekeeper who does microscopy, I would also get him/her to check a sample for Nosema in light of the stained wall as dysentery is often accompanied by Nosema.
 
Hiya I did update my location bar earlier but I see it hasn't done it!!! I am in Llandysul in Wales.
Ah now I see I changed the weather situation NOT the location, sorry
 
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Just sounds like normal, unless you are talking about hand fulls of dead bees they should be fine. You dont say how many frames have stores so if in doubt feed until you can get a look inside. Temps should be ok tomorrow for a quick look.
 
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Now is the time that you should notice an increase in drones, I agree with Craig.
 
Thank you it has been a few bees each day, except the days when they are obviously not flying, I did feed this week as I was concerned, lets hope the weather is ok to have a check tomorrow, thank you to everyone who has answered.
 
My local birds clear up the dead bees, could just be that the local birds have yet to find this as a source of food or are still wary of the hive

also they may just be more visible due to the new terrain...you always see more in the snow than in grass
 
Thank you so much for the answers
but sadly during my bee inspection today I found out the reason why, my colony is not queen right, she has died, I have been left with a laying worker, so now I am desperately trying to find a nucleus to unite with my still strong hive, very sad at the moment and also very desperate, will start a new thread trying to find one......
 
If you just buy a nuc and try to unite they may kill the queen in the nuc as they "think" they have a queen in the laying worker/workers.
 
Have found a nuc, am contacting my local bee keepers to find out if I bst to just go with the nuc and let the other colony die or to unite the two
 
The clue was the dead drones at as time of year when you would not expect dead drones. I agree with Veg don't even think about uniting your colony to a nucleus as quite often the queen in the nucleus gets killed. Uniting often works if you unite to something much larger but best to shake them out on the ground away from other hives and remove all visual clues to the original hive position. Then the bees will fly back and will enter other hives and be accepted boosting their foraging population. However as you only have one colony then this procedure obviously isn't possible so you are left with a problem. Probably best to cut your losses and kill them off (detergent water is safer than petrol and allows you to salvage any decent comb).
 

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