This is a frequently voiced comment: "I saw lot of them (bees) dead around (in front of) their hives", and its is usually presented as a question. I've learned to ask for a definition of "a lot". To some people, 10 bees is a lot. To a commercial beekeeper with lots of strong hives in an apiary, "a lot" might consist of what one of our guys calls "the sickening crunch" as he steps through the grass. A severe pesticide kill will pile up bees over a large area in front of the poisoned hives. I've seen cases where you could pick up the bees by the shovel fulls. When you walk past a hive like this (and if there is tall grass in the yard, the drying bodies of the piled up bees "crunch". I have a suggestion for anyone concerned about dead bees by the hives. Clear the front of any hive and put down a sheet of light colored cloth (1-2 meters (yds) square). Stake down the cloth, and check it every morning and night. You may be surprised at how many dead/dying bees are on the cloth. Remember also, that you may want to put some border around the tarp to keep the bodies from blowing off in the wind, and that animals like skunks may eat the dead bees on the cloth. That's why checking more than once a day makes sense. Strong colonies have 10s of thousands of bees. A portion of these bees forage. Forager bees are the oldest bees in the colony. Their forager (flight) life span is relatively short. If you have good weather and something for bees to actively gather, a forager may have as few as 10-12 days of flight in its "foraging" lifetime. In practice, foragers may live considerably longer, especially when weather condition and resources are variable (fly one day, not another, etc.). But, in the midst of a nectar flow with sunny, calm days; up to 10% of the foragers could die each day of old age/natural causes. Now, some die in the field, some get lost, others become food for a predator, etc. But some make one last trip to the hive and perish. And, they are then tossed out by hive bees. Now, if you really do have "a lot" of bees on the ground - what are the causes? These could be varied, but include pesticides, mites, disease, heat stress - usually after moving hives, pollution. Cheers Jerry