Pile of dead bees

[beepig]

My one colony in out apiary is a large swarm. All seemed fine,minimal. Varroa drop lots of stores. Today however, pile of d3afpd bees on landing board. Second pile in two weeks. Any ideas?

 

[Swarm]

Any spraying going on?

 

[beepig]

‘Tis organic here and no crops. By the coast

 

[Blunt Spike]

How big is a pile of dead bees? 10, 20, 50, 100?

Are they drones?

 

[Swarm]

‘Tis organic here and no crops. By the coast

Local authorities? Does your association have a spray liaison officer?

 

[beepig]

100+ and not drones

 

[local_beekeeper]

Which do you feed your bees on ambrosia/invertbee or sugar syrup?

 

[beepig]

None of the above. Their own honey two supers worth

 

[Millet]

This time of the year it is unlilkely pesticides, More like old bees dying 0ff or the ones you see dying have been starved or pensioners.

 

[local_beekeeper]

This time of the year it is unlilkely pesticides, More like old bees dying 0ff or the ones you see dying have been starved or pensioners.

 

[Madge]

... More like old bees dying 0ff or the ones you see dying have been starved or pensioners.

Old bees don’t die off all at once. I’ve never seen it.

I think you should gather an envelope-full of dead bees and send it to your bee inspector to examine.


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[Madge]

... or the ones you see dying have been starved or pensioners.

Perhaps starving ... you might have under-estimated their stores, or it might have been out of reach during a cold spell; some died and then, in better weather, got carried out - but it’s best to send a specimen off to the inspector.



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[Gilberdyke John]

Perhaps starving ... you might have under-estimated their stores, or it might have been out of reach during a cold spell; some died and then, in better weather, got carried out - but it’s best to send a specimen off to the inspector.



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Perhaps this quote by Rab in a current thread is pertinent?

It is simple, to a beekeeper who knows that bees fall off the cluster if their temperature drops below about eight degrees Celsius. As Beefriendly - yes they can, but it depends on circumstsances. Even bees arriving back at the hive can perish, if they do not get inside reasonably quickly, during cold/wet weather.
__________________
Keep death off the roads - learn to fly instead.?

 

[masterBK]

I notice piles of bees appearing every so often in front of the hives in my garden during winter and it certainly seems to correlate with the weather. I agree with Mellifera crofter and Rab and suggest that during several days of bad weather especially cold weather the bees that die naturally in the hive during that time accumulate on the floorboard and then at the first opportunity e.g a sunny day the "undertaker bees" drag the bodies out of the entrance and dump them.

 

[beeno]

Seen very little winter die-off so far presumably because it has been flying weather most days so the bees have died away from the hives!

 

[Karsal]

My one colony in out apiary is a large swarm. All seemed fine,minimal. Varroa drop lots of stores. Today however, pile of d3afpd bees on landing board. Second pile in two weeks. Any ideas?

I had a similar experience several years ago. Concluded that hives were in a windy spot and decided to close the OMF's on all three colonies. All survived the winter and had a head start on colonies that had been left with OMF's still open.

 

[pargyle]

My biggest colony had a pile (probably about 100 or so) on the landing board one day last week - all piled up in the middle so they had clearly been dumped outside by the undertakers ... I think it's just natural die off in a big colony and the lack of desire for the undertakers to do anything more than get the bodies out of the hive. I would not worry unduly unless it's occurring on a daily basis and is many 100's of bees.

The only reason for involving the bee inspector is if you would suspect foul brood and I think before I did that I'd be investigating a bit further ... a beekeeper with a bit more experience invited for a second opinion. I'm not sure that sending samples off to them is a good idea ?

As for crop spraying .. ?? What crops are there to spray at this time of the year ...

 

[YHP]

I don't think its crop spraying. If its some form of disease or virus then opening up and treating is probably going to do more harm than good this time of year. Best leave alone, make sure they have plenty of stores and inspect early next year with a tonic feed to encourage brood rearing. Then you can inspect for disease.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’m getting that. Cold snap followed by a warmer day and there are dead bees on the landing boards.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

sounds like natural winter die off to me,bodies building up in the hive during a cold spell then bees getting dumped on the doorstep rather than undertakers braving the cold to carry the dead away from the hive