Winter bee die off what to expect

[Natureboy44]

First Winter with bees so was wandering what sort of bee die off to expect and what is normal. For example I have been seeing 1-2 dead bees in the mornings dead outside hive and just the last two days seen 4-6 each day. Just looking for confirmation for what is normal to expect and what isn't as it starts to colder.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

sounds about normal - what you need to epxect as well is, after a long cold spell, the bees will be tightly clustered and not up to much at all (certainly no housekeeping or mortuary duties), but as soon as they get a comparatively warm day they will get a little more active and will do a quick clearout - so all the mortalities during the cluster period will all turn up on the doorstep at once.

 

[Poly Hive]

As mostly we don't see the corpses as they are either hauled off by the undertakers or die on cleansing flights we are pretty much unaware of the death rate.

I once had an OSR site in a disused concrete silage pit. I was offshore at the time and on returning home I was shocked at the near carpet of bees on the concrete and wondered if there had been spraying. No, it was just the true death rate on view.

PH

 

[madasafish]

1,000 + bees die each day from a colony in summer..So one or two a day in winter is a rounding error.

 

[masterBK]

Photo of dead thrown out one sunny day from 2 hives after prolonged cold spell in feb 2013